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Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don't want to suffer. We don't want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we're living our lives in a very comfortable area. There's no growth in that. - David Goggins


Hey Strava Family, thank you for tuning into this week’s Tuesday Chat with Strava.
My name is Bryant and today I wanted to tap into the mental aspect of being Too Comfortable.


At some point in our lives, we’ve been pushed to accomplish the extraordinary. During the process, we don’t always feel we’ll make it through to the end but somehow we accomplish our goal. The part of the story that often doesn’t get talked about is the after.


After we accomplish our goal what tends to happen? We get Too Comfortable.


Now don’t get me wrong, I completely understand your exhaustion after accomplishing a tremendous goal. 


When I was 14, I ran my 1st Half Marathon event and I can tell you from experience once I crossed the finish line, the only thing I could think of was WATER. There wasn’t any additional thought after that.


After achieving our goal, we should take time to acknowledge what we’ve just accomplished. It is good to reminisce on the obstacles we overcame and reflect on how going through the process made us stronger. As mentioned before, the part we tend to overlook is how comfortable we become after acknowledging our achievement.


According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of being comfortable is “affording or enjoying contentment and security”. Does this sound pretty familiar to you? I’ll be the first to admit it sounds familiar to me.

After becoming too comfortable your habits begin to slip, your motivation to achieve is not the same, the drive & fire you once had requires even more to get you going, and lastly but most importantly the trajectory of your growth begins to change.

We all want to become comfortable in different aspects of our lives because we gravitate towards doing things we know. When you're comfortable you know what to expect and it tends to be the safest option to choose. Why go against the unknown when you can know what's ahead?


Becoming too comfortable stagnates our Growth not only as athletes but as people.


Climbing a different mountain only strengthens your skills and who you are. Facing the unknown constantly is not an easy task but the reward cannot be matched.



I wanted to use today's Tuesday Chat to make you aware of your growth, inspire you to keep going, and remind you to never become too comfortable with life.


 


If I was able to do any of these three or more, Please share your own experiences, share any tips you have, share your thoughts on the topic, or share Motivation for your Strava Family.


Thank you for reading!
Best Bryant

Some great points @Bryant, I know that when I get too comfortable, my fitness score in Strava starts to creep downwards - but if I keep changing my routine, pushing myself harder, then it goes upwards.  After my football (soccer) season finished this year, I kept on running, but noticed my fitness score dropped from around 80 to around 40 (over the course of about 5 weeks). 

What I was missing was the sprinting and interval intensity that I got from the sport.  I need to break out of the comfort of my typical endurance runs, and put sprinting intervals into my runs (and also have differing levels of intensity runs during the week - some focused on recovery, others on speed and threshold HR).  Now my fitness score is going back in the right direction.

Something else that occurs to me from your post - often, an athlete will put in all kinds of training and prep for an event (like a half or full marathon), and suffer an injury in the process - which causes a failure to achieve the original goal.  I think we lose sight of the fact that even despite that failure, we've succeeded in becoming a better version of ourselves (and hopefully, gain motivation to recover, and try again).

I love this breakdown! Also, I love your perspective on injuries.
I've encountered my own share of injuries over the years and I have to say seeing the bigger in the process is often overlooked.

Does strava have an activity to help keep track of a 4x4x48? I'm considering working towards that this year by building to a 1x1x12, 2x2x24, 3x3x36, 4x4x48 during the summer & fall, but I don't really want to log a 1 or two mile run each time. is there a way to launch an activity and record it as such?

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