3-10-25 Red Mike Message: The Cost of Comfort.

Yeah, comfort feels good. It's safe, it's familiar, it's easy. But you know, if it feels easy all the time, you might be taking the easy road. You might take comfort for granted because sometimes, if it feels comfortable, you might just be doing it wrong.

People on your team—your leaders, your innovators, the ones showing big success—they're pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone. If you stay comfortable all the time, it's going to kill growth. If you're not stretching, you're probably shrinking. It keeps you stuck in the status quo. Playing it safe is not where you want to go. You want to keep striving, keep moving. It's the enemy of excellence.

Nobody reaches their goal, nobody reaches their potential by coasting, because the only way you can coast, really, is downhill.

Here's a story from when I was coaching. Teaching the kids the proper stance, particularly really young kids, was always really, really important. My thought was, if you don't have a good base, the rest of it—you're just building on junk, right?

So, you have to get them in the right stance. That means feet shoulder-width apart, feet pointing parallel in the same direction. I always told them, think of railroad tracks—they always point the same direction. Then, you have to bend your legs at the knee just enough so your bottom is just past the back of your heels. If you think about it, you're sort of like that, right? Your feet are here, your bottom on this side goes just past where the back of your feet are, right? But then you've got to straighten that back up too, right? So your body's upright, your legs are bent, your feet are straight, nice and tall from the waist.

Now, especially for beginners, people who have never done it, their legs and core would get tired pretty quickly. It's basically an open-air squat if you think about it. And then somebody would always end up saying, particularly early in the season, "Coach, this hurts." And I would always say, "Good. That means you're doing it right."

Growth is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to challenge you. Just like those young athletes feeling the burn in their legs and their gut while holding that stance, progress is going to come with discomfort. The pain, though, is not a sign to stop—it's a sign that you're doing it right.

You need to fight through it. Fight that burn, fight that pain, keep holding that position. Get uncomfortable on purpose. Say yes to challenges. The things that scare you the most are usually the ones worth doing the most.

Embrace your failures. Just because you get something wrong or it blows up on you doesn't mean you can't learn something. Doesn't mean you're not still moving in the right direction.

It's the old analogy of someone saying, "I've failed far more than I've succeeded, but that's why I succeed." Wish I could remember whose quote that was that I'm paraphrasing, but it's early, and it's also time change weekend, so cut me some slack.

Do things that are hard. You've heard me say this a million times: The hard is what makes it great. Because if it was easy, everybody would do it.

Push yourself mentally, physically, professionally. Surround yourself with people that challenge you. Growth is not going to happen by itself. It's not going to happen in an echo chamber. It's not going to happen if you don't have team members around you willing to help hold you up while you're pushing yourself.

Don't avoid discomfort. You should strive for discomfort, because growth happens at the edge of your comfort zone, not in the middle of it.

So stop waiting for the perfect moment. Get moving. Get uncomfortable. Get better.

That's today's Red Mike Message. I hope you found it interesting. I hope you found it helpful. I hope you will put it in place in your life.

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I appreciate you so very much. I hope you have a great Monday. I hope you have a great week. Go out there and knock the cover off the ball—I know you can do it.

I appreciate you. Thanks again. And don’t forget:

Life is short. Drink the bourbon.

Red Mike Messages are leadership and life lessons I picked up from 25 years as a public servant, 16 years as a youth football coach and scouting volunteer, and 10 years as a mediocre athlete with far more heart than actual physical ability.