Getting Comfortable with Discomfort

Physicist Peter Carruthers, once the leader of the theoretical division at Los Alamos Laboratory, had a wonderful viewpoint about the discomfort that comes with taking on an interesting challenge:  

“There’s a special tension to people who are constantly in the position of making new knowledge. You’re always out of equilibrium. When I was young, I was deeply troubled by this. Finally, I realized that if I understood too clearly what I was doing, where I was going, then I probably wasn’t working on anything very interesting.”

As I reflect on the past few semesters of teaching, I'm reminded of the profound insight captured in this quote.  Moreover, I'm mindful that many students are deeply troubled by the discomfort that comes with learning something new and difficult.  Or, they shy away from particular activities that they find uncomfortable, such as making a public presentation or speaking up in class.  In education today, I think we are often allowing students to nestle in their comfort zone.  As a result, they are missing tremendous fairly low-risk opportunities to stretch and grow their skills in the safety of a classroom.  

What happens when they enter the workforce?  Will they seek opportunities that "fit" their skills, or will they look for challenges that will grow their skills?  For those who seek comfort and fit, they may excel early in their career, but will they plateau at some point?  Will they grow bored eventually with repeating tasks at which they have become quite adept?  Meanwhile, what about those who stretch themselves?  We need to prepare them for the failures that will undoubtedly occur.  We need to encourage them to be self-reflective, to learn quickly from their mistakes, and to adapt based on the feedback of others.  If we teach them to be resilient learners, they will thrive in the long run. 

Leaders need to think about how to best develop talented young people in their organization.  They need to insure that these future stars don't limit their potential by simply seeking comfortable opportunities in the early part of their career.  I told my students the other day that they should not shy away from the mess in their future organizations; they should sometimes run to the mess.  In those situations, there's the opportunity to fix broken things, and to learn a ton from that process.  Leaders, of course, need to support those who take on these challenges.  They will need to be encouraged, and they need some help not being frustrated by the failures along the way.  

Are You Feeling Uncomfortable? It May Be a Sign of Learning & Progress

Source: Three Teachers Talk

My dissertation adviser and mentor, David Garvin, used to love to quote Dr. Peter Carruthers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.   Carruthers once said, 

“There’s a special tension to people who are constantly in the position of making new knowledge.  You’re always out of equilibrium.  When I was young, I was deeply troubled by this.  Finally, I realized that if I understood too clearly what I was doing, where I was going, then I probably wasn’t working on anything very interesting.”   

The quote came to mind when I read about a new set of studies by Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach.  Kasandra Brabaw recently wrote about the research for the University of Chicago's Booth Review.  The scholars examined whether discomfort could be a motivating force for people or an impediment to learning and performance.  The authors conducted a series of experiments (both in the field and online).  They encouraged some of the research subjects to "seek out discomfort and take it as a measure of progress toward their goal."  Their findings demonstrated that being encouraged to seek discomfort increased motivation to take on emotionally challenging tasks.  Why?  People tended to reappraise discomfort as a positive cue, as a sign that they were making progress and learning something valuable.  In some of their experiments, the scholars showed that you don't have to even tell people that discomfort should be seen as a sign of progress; they tend to come to that conclusion on their own in certain circumstances.  

At the end of the feature about this research, Brabaw summarizes the key lessons, with a word of caution as well.  She writes, 

"Woolley and Fishbach make sure to point out the danger of taking it too far. Just like sharp and unexpected pain can be a cue to stop exercising, emotional pain can be a signal to take care with your mental health, they write. But taken cautiously, adopting a “no pain, no gain” mentality when you know something will make you feel awkward, sad, scared, or uncomfortable can boost your motivation to stick with it."