How to Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Tackling Career Growth Challenges

As a collegiate athlete, you’re no stranger to discomfort. Early morning workouts, grueling drills, and the occasional team bus that smells like a combination of stale snacks and despair have all prepared you for one undeniable truth: growth happens in the struggle. The same principle applies to your career. Growth is a lot like conditioning drills—unpleasant at times, but undeniably effective.

So, let’s lace up and dive into the art of embracing discomfort in your career journey. Don’t worry; this won’t involve burpees.

The Strange Charm of Awkward Beginnings

Remember your first day of practice when you didn’t know where the locker room was and accidentally walked into the coach’s office instead? Embarking on a career has a similar flavor of awkwardness. Whether it’s fumbling through your first interview or nervously presenting your ideas in a meeting, the initial stages of career growth can feel like trying to dribble with two left feet.

But here’s the kicker: those awkward moments are golden. They’re the foundation for every win that comes after. Each stumble is a stepping stone, and like learning to nail a perfect free throw, you only improve with time, practice, and a little bit of self-deprecating humor.

Rejection: The Toughest Opponent

In sports, you lose games. In careers, you get rejection emails—or worse, no email at all. It stings. But take a moment to remember the times you lost a close game and came back stronger. Rejection is just feedback in a harsh jersey.

Treat it as a coach’s critique: “Good effort, but here’s where you can improve.” The more you reframe rejection as a learning opportunity, the more resilient you become. Plus, when you finally get the job or close the deal, it’ll feel like hitting that game-winning shot.

Public Speaking: The New Conditioning Drill

Giving a presentation at work is like taking the game-winning free throw with the crowd going wild—your palms are sweaty, your heart is pounding, and you just want to survive the moment. Public speaking can be terrifying, but so was your first big game. And just like that game, preparation is your best friend.

Before you step up, practice like you’re shooting free throws in your driveway. Know your material, rehearse it until you’re confident, and visualize success. Sure, your first attempt might feel like a total airball, but with time, you’ll find your rhythm. And unlike in sports, there’s no shot clock, so take your time to breathe.

Stretching Beyond Your Comfort Zone (Literally)

Being uncomfortable in your career isn’t just about awkward moments; it’s about stretching yourself—sometimes literally. You’ve learned to stretch physically before a game, but career stretching involves challenging your limits, saying yes to opportunities that scare you, and diving headfirst into uncharted waters.

Take on that project you feel unqualified for. Volunteer to lead a meeting. Start a conversation with someone who intimidates you (pro tip: they’re probably just as nervous as you are). Growth doesn’t happen when you’re coasting; it happens when you’re pushing past what feels safe.

Trusting the Process (Even When It Sucks)

In sports, there are drills that seem pointless—until you see how they translate into game day skills. Similarly, in your career, you might find yourself wondering why you’re assigned a task that feels unrelated to your goals. Trust the process. Those seemingly irrelevant tasks build skills you didn’t know you needed.

One day, you’ll look back and realize that learning to navigate an overwhelming spreadsheet prepared you to manage a complex project. Or that awkward networking event taught you how to strike up conversations with future clients. Every step matters, even if it doesn’t make sense in the moment.

Laughing Through the Chaos

One of the best ways to embrace discomfort is to find the humor in it. When you spill coffee on yourself right before a meeting or accidentally send an email to the wrong person, laugh it off. These moments, while cringeworthy now, make for fantastic stories later.

Humor has a magical way of diffusing tension and making challenges feel manageable. When you can laugh at your own missteps, you take away their power to derail you. Plus, it’s a lot easier to face the next challenge when you’re not weighed down by the last one.

Embrace the Athlete Mindset

At the end of the day, you’re already equipped to handle career challenges because you’ve been training for them your whole life. The resilience, discipline, and determination you’ve built as an athlete are your secret weapons. Every uncomfortable situation is just another opponent to outplay.

So, go ahead. Take the shot, even if it feels risky. Say yes to opportunities that scare you. Dive into the deep end of discomfort, and remember—you’ve got this. After all, you’ve survived worse: wind sprints, ice baths, and that one time your coach made you run drills in the rain. Career challenges? Piece of cake.

And if all else fails, just remember—no one has ever died of secondhand embarrassment from a bad Zoom call. Probably.