What is the main message of The Discomfort Zone?

Embrace discomfort for personal growth and success with The Discomfort Zone.

Who is the author of The Discomfort Zone?

The author of The Discomfort Zone is Farrah Storr.

Career & Success

The Discomfort Zone Book Summary - The Discomfort Zone Book explained in key points

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The Discomfort Zone summary

Name: The Discomfort Zone
Rating: 4.4 (230 reviews)
Author: Farrah Storr

Farrah Storr

How to Get What You Want by Living Fearlessly

4.4 (230 ratings)

24 mins

Brief summary

'The Discomfort Zone' by Farrah Storr is an insightful book that encourages readers to embrace discomfort in order to achieve growth and success. It offers practical advice, inspiring stories, and shares Storr's own journey in overcoming her fears and prejudices.

Topics

Inspiration Mental Health

Table of Contents

The Discomfort Zone
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Master your fear so you can live life to the fullest.

Do you ever wonder what life would be like if fear didn’t hold you back? Maybe you would’ve enrolled in that acting course everyone told you wasn’t practical, or perhaps you would have traveled to your dream destination alone. Or maybe you’d have braved confessing your love to someone special and found yourself somewhere very different.

Fear inhibits most of us on a daily basis. That uncomfortable feeling flares up in our bellies, and our instincts tell us to flee. But all fear does is curb our potential. We live within the safety of the “known,” too afraid to explore what new skills, opportunities, or people we could bring into our lives.

There is, however, a way to break free of our fear-based limitations – and it isn’t exclusively for the brave or reckless.

To defy fear and embrace your life fully, you must learn to get comfortable with discomfort.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

how feedback is similar to sex;
why special edition perfumes represent courage; and
what Steve Jobs didn’t tell us about successful hustling.

By reframing our fear, we can use it to improve our performance.

Think back to the last time you took an important exam. How did you feel just before sitting down? Were you pumped and ready to ace every question? Or were you sick to the stomach, worried that you’d forgotten to study something crucial and imagining your inevitable failure?

We all respond differently to anticipated fears. While some of us welcome the rush of adrenaline that a risky situation brings, many – if not most – of us panic. This panic triggers all kinds of physical responses, from dizziness to desperately needing the restroom.

If this sounds all too familiar, don’t worry. By learning how to reinterpret your physical responses to challenges, you can transform yourself from a fretter to a fighter.

The key message here is: By reframing our fear, we can use it to improve our performance.

Those fiery exam takers, convinced of their success, are in what’s called a challenge state. Much like the stress-heads, their body floods with adrenaline when confronted by stress. But instead of interpreting their sweaty palms and increased heart rate as signs that they’re about to fail, they see them as their body preparing for a battle they’ll win. As they imagine their success, the reward center in their brain activates, which reduces fear. This in turn increases oxygen levels in their blood, so that they can make fast, reliable decisions.

The good news is, we can all get into a challenge state and respond positively to stress. To do so, take time before your next big event to visualize how brilliantly you’ll perform. For example, if you have a job interview, imagine yourself dressed to impress. See yourself confidently greeting your interviewer, and picture yourself calmly and audibly answering every question. Repeat this practice as much as possible before your appointment. It will help you feel in control and keep your fear at bay.

Pay attention to your self-talk too. Substitute every negative thought for a positive one. Instead of telling yourself that you’re doomed to fail, root for yourself! Athletes have been using this to manage pre-competition nerves for eons, and it works!

The more you practice, the easier it’ll be to enter a challenge state. Once you’ve retrained how you interpret your physical responses to fear, you’ll become more comfortable throwing yourself into those nerve-racking challenges. You’ll also be in a stronger position to come up with a Plan B if you need to. We’ll explore this more in the next blink.

How we handle the obstacles we encounter determines our level of success.

Eric Underwood is one of this century’s most successful dancers. He’s performed with the American Ballet Theatre and was the first black soloist at London’s Royal Ballet. Underwood’s talent is even more impressive, given that he didn’t start dancing until he was 14. That’s almost a decade later than in the case of most professionals. And it wasn’t a love of Swan Lake that inspired his artistic goals. It was his desire to escape the rough Washington, DC neighborhood he grew up in.

Dancing wasn’t even his first choice. When the local performing arts school put out a call for new students, Underwood secured an acting audition. But on audition day, Underwood choked midway through. While this may have been devastating for some, he was still determined to land a place at the school.

Processing trauma thoroughly can bring positive change into our lives.

On July 7, 2005, Sajda Mughal was running late for work. To make matters worse, her local subway station in North London was closed. She hurried to the next station, only to find the platform packed with commuters. For the past two years, she had traveled in the front subway cars every morning. But today, she let the crowd carry her into a middle car.

About ten minutes later, there was a huge bang. The lights went out, and thick smoke filled the train. Mughal thought it had derailed and was convinced she was going to die. Later, she found out that 26 people on her train had been killed by a suicide bomber. Most of them were in the front car.

To reach our full potential, we have to let go of being perfect.

Social pressure. Most of us experience it regularly. Whether we’re about to sing at karaoke, tell someone how we feel, or apply for a competitive job – we all long to impress. We can’t help it! The desire to be liked is hardwired into us. It helped us survive back when we lived in tribes and relied on each other for basic needs. But now, social pressure cripples us.

We either exhaust ourselves trying to be an unrealistic ideal that we’re fed culturally and through social media. Or we simply don’t try anything new because we’re too scared to be less than perfect. This means we never discover the full extent of our capabilities.

To thrive professionally, we must seek out regular feedback.

In 2010, Patrick Doyle faced a crisis. He had just become CEO of Domino’s. The company was still delivering pizzas as fast as ever. But they tasted awful! To save the business, Doyle came up with a radical plan.

In a campaign called the “Pizza Turnaround,” Doyle’s team recorded customers’ scathing reviews – and aired them on national TV! Then, with new recipes in place, Doyle broadcast the same customers sampling their new pizzas. It was a risky strategy, but he was confident that he could successfully implement customer feedback. And he was right! The customers loved the new pizzas and gave them rave reviews. Within three months, Domino’s sales and share prices had skyrocketed.

Experiencing uncomfortable constraints helps us become more creative.

Even movie giants have it tough at times. During the filming of Jaws, Steven Spielberg hit an obstacle. His mechanical shark malfunctioned, and repairing it would take weeks! The 25-year-old director couldn’t afford to wait, so he came up with another solution. That solution went on to become one of the best-known scenes in the history of film.

A baited tire tied to a pier speeds through the water. The pier cracks, and a fisherman falls in. Driftwood from the pier is dragged toward him from beneath the ocean’s surface. His friend yells at him to swim. The increasing tempo of the two-note score sets our hearts racing...

If we want to truly succeed, we must be open to failure.

The next time you’re at a department store, head over to the cosmetics counter. Check out some of the big brands. At least one will have a “limited edition” product on display, complete with a gold foil label to make it look extra special.

Limited edition perfumes may seem exclusive, but they’re actually market tests. Companies use them to decide whether or not they should launch a product permanently. This is what Tom Ford did with his fragrance, Soleil Blanc. If it hadn’t sold well during its test run, it would have quietly disappeared.

Improve your hustle by making it mutually beneficial.

Steve Jobs was renowned for his hustling. As an eighth grader, he called Hewlett-Packard to request spare parts and landed himself a summer internship. Throughout his career, he encouraged people to call their own shots. Since most people don’t ask for what they want, he saw this as the defining difference.

Such an empowered attitude toward hustling is all well and good if you’re a proactive genius like Jobs. But for most of us, hustling can be incredibly uncomfortable. We worry about what others will think if we ask them for something and offer nothing in return.

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What is The Discomfort Zone about?

The Discomfort Zone (2018) shows us how we can become more comfortable with the fears that hold us back. But it also goes one step further, explaining how we can harness these fears to drive success. Using real life examples, Farrah Storr examines the true nature of uncomfortable feelings and provides strategies to manage them so we can reach our full potential.

The Discomfort Zone Review

The Discomfort Zone (2020) by Farrah Storr is a thought-provoking exploration of how stepping out of our comfort zones can lead to personal and professional growth. Here's why we recommend reading this book:

Offering insightful stories and examples, it shows how embracing discomfort can lead to new opportunities and breakthroughs.
Through the lens of her own experiences, Storr shares practical strategies for overcoming fear and embracing discomfort in order to achieve success.
The book challenges conventional wisdom and encourages readers to question their own biases and limitations, making it a compelling read that inspires personal transformation.

Best quote from The Discomfort Zone

Acknowledging your own internal discomfort is about one of the bravest things you can do...

—Farrah Storr

Who should read The Discomfort Zone?

Victims of performance anxiety
Seekers of true fulfillment
Ambitious professionals wanting to create business opportunities

About the Author

Farrah Storr is a journalist and editor. In 2018, as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, she was awarded a PPA Award and a BSME Award. In 2017, she was included on a list of the UK’s 1,000 most influential people. The Discomfort Zone is her first book.

Categories with The Discomfort Zone

Career & Success Personal Development

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