Life is good, isn’t it? We have access to food whenever we want food. We turn on a tap, and out flows clean water. We live in a country with no conflict or war. We climb into a safe and warm bed each night. We have good jobs, a prosperous economy and, most importantly, we have people around us whom we love and who love us.

Isn’t that everything we need?

Maybe, maybe not.

We humans like to be comfortable. So we evolved in dangerous environments where survival depended on our ability to find shelter, food and to escape predators. If we didn’t find comfort, we died.

Luckily, we don’t face life-and-death situations very often in the real world. We can survive on two thousand steps a day. We don’t have to push ourselves very hard. We don’t have many real problems.

It’s strange, then, isn’t it, that we are less satisfied than ever before. Rates of anxiety and depression increase every year. We live with high levels of obesity and chronic disease, and people report feeling a lack of meaning.

How do we square this with the fact that life is easier today than it ever has been?

Maybe it’s too easy. Maybe our brain likes solving problems because that’s what it’s supposed to do. And therefore, in the absence of real-life issues, it finds problems for ourselves: so-called ‘first world’ problems. The A/C is not cold enough, the food is not hot enough, the wi-fi is not fast enough, or the shoes are not comfortable enough. The list goes on and on. Our problems have been redefined, and with that, they have become more and more trivial.

Living in our comfort zone all the time means we never know what our true potential is. We never understand what our bodies and minds are capable of.

What do we miss out on if we never get the chance to say, ‘wow, I am stronger than I knew, braver than I thought’?

Maybe we need to push ourselves. Perhaps we need to put ourselves in complicated situations in an attempt to mimic the challenges that we humans used to face out in nature all the time. Maybe we could leave as one person and come out the other side as a new person – a stronger, less stressed, more grounded, happier person with a fresh perspective. Forcing ourselves to do complex stuff also means that we can draw on our learning and experience when something else comes up in life. We can say,
'I am good at solving problems, I have solved problems harder than this before.’ The ‘I have figured it out before’ value is very important.

Investing is a bit like this – it’s about putting yourself outside your comfort zone. You have to say, ‘I know that at some point, this isn’t going to feel good. At some point, I am going to feel uncomfortable. Markets go down sometimes. But I know why I am doing it – I am investing for a reason. I am investing to fund a lifetime of contentment. I am investing in my children’s future. I am investing to leave a lasting legacy for the people and things that matter to me.’

Then you find that the discomfort passes and it is only temporary and that so much good came from it.