5 Powerful Life Lessons I Learned on My ‘Think Day’
#3 Always view discomfort as a challenge.
I recently went on a Think Day; a whole day of solitude to reflect on the past year, plan for the next year, and to become more aware of what is valuable and meaningful in my life. It’s a practice that I highly recommend one do regularly.
The clarity of thought that comes with such a practice is profound. In this article, I want to share the top 5 universal lessons I learned on my Think Day, through the process of reading through last year’s journal as well as creating goals for the year ahead while surrounding myself with nature and solitude.
Always ask yourself, will this make me a better person?
I realized that the most important thing is to always be a better human being. Not to make more money, or to lose more weight, or to eat healthier, although of course, these can be important too. But the most important endeavour in our life is to continually become a better person.
This creates a filter through which you can assess everything in your life. If you are making a big decision, or even a small one for that matter, ask yourself which option will make you a better person.
When planning your day, consider where you can be a better person.
When creating your goals, consider what you need to do to become a better person.
Always keep this goal in your mind.
Leo Tolstoy recognized this a long time ago, saying,
“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.”
Always ask yourself where you could have been more.
When reflecting on your day, week, year, life, always consider where you could have been more. More loving, more helpful, more considerate. I believe that we can always be more in some regard, and reflecting and recognizing where we could have been more is profoundly valuable to our continual growth.
At the end of the day, I always ask myself where I could have been more. In my end of week reviews, I consider in which areas of my life I could have been more. Maybe I neglected my physical fitness this week, or maybe I didn’t write as much as I should have. This then becomes the focus for the day or week ahead.
View discomfort as a challenge.
I don’t like discomfort. I like to be warm, happy, and secure. I don’t like things out of the ordinary. Noises shake me, conflict rattles me. I am shakeable.
But discomfort is just a part of life. We will always have things that make us uncomfortable, and resisting them will just lead to more pain. If we can lean into the discomfort and view it as a challenge, rather than something to be avoided, we will live a much more contented life.
As Ryan Holiday says, “Put yourself in tough situations. Accept challenges. Familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar.”
Peter Bregman, the author of 18 Minutes, suggests that,
“Instead of looking for how things are the same, we can look for how they are different. Instead of seeking evidence to confirm our perspectives, we can seek to shake them up. Instead of wanting to be right, we can want to be wrong.”
I don’t like to be in tough situations. It’s uncomfortable. But this is the whole point. This is how we grow. This is how we become wise. This is how we become unshakeable — by practicing. Practicing being strong, being calm, tolerating discomfort. By always being open to new things, to be wrong, to be in a position to learn a better way. Discomfort is a challenge. It’s an opportunity to practice.
Everything we do is practice for something.
This is similar to the point above. Being uncomfortable is practice for tolerating discomfort.
But everything is practice for something. Choosing to go to the gym is practice for an active lifestyle. Choosing courage is practice for being courageous. Choosing a healthy snack is practice for eating healthfully. Just like choosing an unhealthy snack is practice for eating unhealthfully.
We are always practicing for something, so it’s important that we are practicing for growth in the right direction. Recognizing this makes making the right decision a whole lot easier.
Experiences are more valuable than money.
Time is our most valuable resource; we can’t get it back and we can’t make more of it. So we need to use it wisely. We need to prioritize our time over our money.
And in this way, experiences are infinitely more valuable than money. Experiences will bring us joy and meaning and love. Money on its own cannot provide these for us. Money can make experiences possible and can provide us with things to make us happy, of course. But only if we spend it.
Spend your money on experiences. Don’t save up for meaningless things. Don’t hold onto your money for no reason.
Go out into the world and experience it.
A regular Think Day is an incredibly powerful practice for finding out what a meaningful life looks like for you. It’s a time in solitude to be alone with your thoughts and to figure out your direction in life. I highly advocate for taking the time for this practice, and to record all the thoughts and realizations you have.
During my quarterly Think Day, I realized a lot of things about myself. I also realized what a meaningful life looks like for me, and gained some clarity on how to cultivate it. This is what I learned:
- To always ask myself, Will this make me a better person?
- To always ask myself, Where could I have been more?
- To view discomfort as a challenge
- To recognize that everything I do is practice for something
- Experiences are always more valuable than money
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