We love comfort. I spent the first 20 or so years of my life loving comfort. I spent a sorry amount of time living way within myself – way beneath my potential. Very few of us even reach our potential because we just don’t know how much we have. Humans thrive against challenges. Challenges spark evolution, evolution sparks life.
Challenge yourself on the daily, seek a little discomfort. It’s hard. It sucks. It’s scary. It’s daunting. But……it’s essential, essential to a life worth living.
You don’t have to walk barefoot on coal or skydive everyday to stretch your boundaries, you can do little things, things you don’t like doing – things that make you tougher long term. For some, exercise is an apt example. For others, it’s forcing themselves to stick to a diet, staying true to walking everyday…….maybe it’s trying to talk to women on the street each and everyday. It could be even simpler, it could be the easiest way I know of to get uncomfortable in your own home……..
Take a shower or bath in cold water!
This isn’t another ‘7 reasons to only shower cold’ or ‘join me on the 30 day cold shower challenge’ post. No. You know all about cold showers. You’re an avid health blog reader, right? You know cold showers’ value, and you know you should be taking them.
My love affair with cold showers began in May 2014. Incidentally, that’s the birth month of this very blog site! It was no coincidence really, I was developing a taste for everything self improvement. Although there are many worse obsessions in life.
In winter too?!
Yes indeed. Any fool can shower/bath cold in May, June, July, August, maybe even September. October, November, December and January? Different ball game. I stayed faithful to the coldest of showers from May to October 2014 and that was enough. I wimped out.
This year? Different story. I have been super strictly cold showering throughout the treacherous British winter months……..morning and night.
OK. So what?
I say this to illustrate the power of pushing the boundaries, doing what you haven’t before. This is evidence of my own evolution. And frankly, I’ve never felt better. My energy is great. My adaptation to training routines is faster than before and maintaining low levels of body fat despite eating a reasonably ‘high carb diet’ are strainless.
I do believe the testosterone boosting hype to be true to an extent – although it’s only one piece of a complex puzzle.
So that’s how I keep uncomfortable on a daily basis. It’s a habit I wouldn’t trade for the world. Cold or hot. Rain or shine. Win or lose.
Cold showers are ‘my thang’, man.
Have you had cold showers? What did you think? I’m expecting a fair amount of practical experience here! What about during the winter, could you do it?
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