Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

One of the most common sayings in our household in recent years has been, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

All three of my now teenage and adult children have been, or continue to be, endurance athletes. During pre-season summers when training regimens started to build, and goals were being set, the statement “get comfortable being uncomfortable” was a frequent phrase of reassurance and encouragement. Coaches would use the phrase to reestablish the athlete’s relationship with discomfort. Discomfort is the state of growth, and no performance can be improved without it. Like many lessons learned through sport, its value extends far beyond athletics.

Learning to be comfortable with discomfort is one of life’s most important skills. Whether recovering from a disappointing test grade, navigating setbacks, or overcoming performance anxiety, growth requires us to move beyond our comfort zones. The people who continue to develop are rarely those who avoid difficult situations; they are those who refuse to be paralyzed by them.

I was reminded of this recently while attending our resident and fellow graduation ceremony at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, one of my favorite events each year.

The graduating chief residents always reflect on memorable patients, difficult encounters, long nights on call, and the mentors, colleagues, family, and friends who helped them through residency. They often describe how these experiences shaped the type of physician and teacher they hope to become.

Yet there is one person they almost never acknowledge.

Themselves.

For more than 20 years, I have had the privilege of training residents. Regardless of how many years we spend teaching, watching eager interns transform into compassionate, confident surgeons never gets old.

Every July, new interns arrive, intelligent, hardworking, and understandably anxious. They worry about making mistakes, presenting on rounds, or performing procedures they have never done before. Years later, those same individuals are confidently leading teams, asking for help when needed, managing complex patients, teaching junior residents, and making difficult decisions under pressure.

Their confidence did not develop because discomfort disappeared. It developed because they learned to embrace it.

Residency teaches far more than anatomy and surgical technique. Every difficult conversation, unexpected outcome, overnight call, and mistake followed by reflection and learning builds resilience. Confidence comes from repetition, not comfort.

Ironically, graduation often brings a new wave of anxiety as residents prepare for fellowship or independent practice. While their technical skills will continue to evolve throughout their careers, they already possess the most important skill for success: They have learned how to learn, adapt, recover from setbacks, and continue moving forward despite uncertainty.

Medicine continually asks us to become beginners again. New technologies emerge. Leadership responsibilities expand. We face difficult conversations, challenging decisions, and constant change. Growth almost always begins with discomfort.

Endurance athletes often approach races with A, B, and C goals. The A goal is the ideal outcome. The B goal reflects success despite imperfect conditions. The C goal is simply to finish, learn, and become stronger because of the experience. Medicine is much the same. Not every operation, patient interaction, research project, or leadership initiative will achieve its A goal. What matters is our willingness to adapt, learn, and keep moving forward.

As another academic year begins and new interns enter our hospitals while recent graduates begin the next stage of their careers, perhaps the most valuable advice we can offer is the same advice endurance coaches have been giving athletes for years.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Discomfort is not the enemy of growth.

It is the pathway to becoming the physician—and the person—we aspire to be.   

—Robin