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Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

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Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#21

Post by kiba »

_gmax0 wrote: post #4
profsummergig wrote: post #2

> we suggest that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation Can someone help me understand this please? With an example? I haven't read the paper, just the abstract. I can barely understand the abstract, I am not going to understand the paper. Per the paper, does the "discomfort" need to be in the same arena as that of the "motivation" one wants? E.g.: If I want to learn a new language, does th…

David Goggin's public persona comes to mind as an extreme example. He frames his journey as one that involved embracing pain and discomfort. Now he preaches it incessantly like a sort of addict to masochism. I think this highlights the point of the study which attempts to say, instead of avoiding discomfort one could welcome it with the added risk that you become some sort of firestarter in the sense that you now can…

He's a rather an extreme example and probably not applicable to most situations we are involved in. Most things in life only required consistency and adherence to long term effort to achieve 'success'.

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#22

Post by ImaCake »

>learning about gun violence.

Maybe this is helpful in the USA, but I hardly see how knowing anything about this counts as "personal growth"? There are plenty of things you can know that actively make you a worse person by making you depressed and thus less engaged with things you can actively act upon.

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#23

Post by [deleted] »

inopinatus wrote: post #20
profsummergig wrote: post #2

> we suggest that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation Can someone help me understand this please? With an example? I haven't read the paper, just the abstract. I can barely understand the abstract, I am not going to understand the paper. Per the paper, does the "discomfort" need to be in the same arena as that of the "motivation" one wants? E.g.: If I want to learn a new language, does th…

I don’t think it can be just anything. I experienced some discomfort this morning but I cannot speak to any consequential personal growth. I can tell you however that the Samyang Buldak instant ramen live up to their fiery reputation.

[deleted]

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#24

Post by vonnik »

This is also known as hormesis, a biological phenomenon where exposure to a low dose of a potentially harmful stressor (toxin, radiation, or environmental factor) leads to a beneficial adaptive response in an organism.

Examples include exercise, vaccination, caloric restriction. Many would argue that exposure to germs, stimulating the immune system, works the same way. Cognitively, examples would be desirable difficulty and deliberate practice in learning, and exposure therapy for phobias.

Ofc this is what Nietzsche meant when he said the thing about “what doesn’t kill you…”

The best way to “grow” or get better in most dimensions of strength and skill is to seek discomfort. The trick is get to get just the right amount for where you’re at, since too much is discouraging, and too little is boring. We seek out coaches and teachers in the hopes that they can trace the growth path for us.

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#25

Post by s1artibartfast »

ImaCake wrote: post #22

>learning about gun violence. Maybe this is helpful in the USA, but I hardly see how knowing anything about this counts as "personal growth"? There are plenty of things you can know that actively make you a worse person by making you depressed and thus less engaged with things you can actively act upon.

It doesn't have to make you depressed and reality isn't always demotivating.

Poor models of reality are a Hallmark of depression.

I think that for many, learning more about gun violence could be a relief because their uninformed baseline is so bad

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#26

Post by sitkack »

bzmrgonz wrote: post #12
profsummergig wrote: post #2

> we suggest that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation Can someone help me understand this please? With an example? I haven't read the paper, just the abstract. I can barely understand the abstract, I am not going to understand the paper. Per the paper, does the "discomfort" need to be in the same arena as that of the "motivation" one wants? E.g.: If I want to learn a new language, does th…

I think it's the science behind the windhoff cold plunges. Also the belief that societies in extreme environmemts(deserts or alaska) thrive better due to prep or die conditioons which make them less averse to physical work.

Or you could kick it in a perfect temperate climate, eat fruit off trees and sleep all day.

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#28

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #16

My path toward personal growth aims toward discomfort. I'm confused; do other people not do this? If I shied away from discomfort, I would be an angry, lonely, sheltered person and exactly the opposite of who I want to become.

Seeking discomfort is not intuitive

I am perhaps less comfortable than others as a baseline. I could seek discomfort by say, listening to people eat with their mouths open, to little avail

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#29

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

bzmrgonz wrote: post #12
profsummergig wrote: post #2

> we suggest that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation Can someone help me understand this please? With an example? I haven't read the paper, just the abstract. I can barely understand the abstract, I am not going to understand the paper. Per the paper, does the "discomfort" need to be in the same arena as that of the "motivation" one wants? E.g.: If I want to learn a new language, does th…

I think it's the science behind the windhoff cold plunges. Also the belief that societies in extreme environmemts(deserts or alaska) thrive better due to prep or die conditioons which make them less averse to physical work.

Last I heard the science did not replicate. He is just unusually tolerant to cold

Re: Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort (2022)

#30

Post by kelseyfrog »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #28
kelseyfrog wrote: post #16

My path toward personal growth aims toward discomfort. I'm confused; do other people not do this? If I shied away from discomfort, I would be an angry, lonely, sheltered person and exactly the opposite of who I want to become.

Seeking discomfort is not intuitive I am perhaps less comfortable than others as a baseline. I could seek discomfort by say, listening to people eat with their mouths open, to little avail

You could, but is it difficult imagining situations which would be uncomfortable, and yet would also lead to personal growth?
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