An Open Letter

One of life's most valuable things is the willingness to tolerate discomfort. If you can sit through things you don’t want to, and take it on the chin, you can grow – instead of sitting in stagnant comfort. I was coaching T in OW, since he no longer wanted to be the worst out of us. We ended up talking about my reasoning of bruising his ego as little as possible to give him consistent reward from that point onwards. I told him about how when I was worse at games, how I would put my ego aside and get advice and help from random good players who were insufferable. I told him about how I would go into it dropping all ego, and just accept it every time they told me what I thought was wrong. I don’t have to believe it, but in that moment I can either try to defend myself or I can accept it and get more information instead. And I chose the latter. Because of that, I have more information to decide what to do with, and because of that I was able to get way better at things. I think this same tenacity has benefitted me in all other facets of my life. I got better at the gym, because I forced myself to tolerate that discomfort and push myself beyond what my mind or body wants to naturally do. I got mentally healthier because I pushed my mind to face things and utilize therapy to its fullest by facing horribly uncomfortable situations. I got better at games because I fully set aside my ego and pride and got coaching however I could. I got better at academics only when I didn’t have an ego or belief that I was good at it already.

If you can, practice that discomfort. Just sit with it and see how you survive, and over time you will see how you blossom.