--- title: "Discomfort Training" description: "A practical case for practicing under pressure before the pressure is real." author: "Rahim Rasul" type: "Podcast episode" series: "Halftime Talks" episode: 148 published: "2017-10-31" duration: "12 min" theme: "Reps and effort" tags: "discomfort, resilience, stress, training" audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_148_DiscomfortTraining.mp3?dest-id=175061" url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/discomfort-training/" site: "I Love Process" --- # Discomfort Training _A practical case for practicing under pressure before the pressure is real._ **The question:** How do you respond to pressure? Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_148_DiscomfortTraining.mp3?dest-id=175061 ## Before you listen Discomfort training has become a priceless part of my mind, body and spirit regimen. It doesn't have to be extreme. Stress tends to trigger our worst habits, and small doses of discomfort, taken where the stakes are low, teach you how you react and build the grit to keep climbing. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face, so the talk argues for practice at game speed. With Wim Hof breathing, my breath hold went from a minute and 15 seconds to three minutes and 40 in a week, and cold showers went from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. The limit was mostly the conversation in my head. Joshua Waitzkin played chess in Washington Square Park through smoke and heckling, so tournament chaos felt like home turf. Listen for the closing challenge: find your own corner of the earth to practice discomfort, so you stay centered in the storm while everyone around you loses their cool. ## From the talk > Training is something grounded in experience. > > I recognize that most of the things that limit me are because I have the expectation or the assumption the conversation going on in my mind, which is limiting my output. > > Find your own corner of the earth that you can carve, that you can prepare for that discomfort. So you can be centered during the storm. ## Sit with this - How do you respond to stress? ## Transcript I would like to begin this episode of halftime talks with a quote I love quotes, quotes come from the past and have this magical ability to illuminate the present. This quote comes to us by way of a Greek philosopher by the name of Archer loaches. And he says that we do not rise to the level of our expectation, we fall to the level of our training. There's another quote I do not know it is of an unnamed origin. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. The reason for this episode, the reason that I'm talking about how we do not rise to the level of our expectation expectations are these things that are fabricated in our mind, we fall to the level of our training training is something grounded in experience. And I do believe in the power of our mind. But in order to allow for that which we see with our mind to even exist in the world, we must create game speed scenarios. There is no way in the world that the way that we play in practice without conflict without somebody gunning for our neck, that we will be able to stand the whole weight when it comes full throttle at us in terms of life. Now, everything isn't necessarily a game. This doesn't mean sports or war. But sometimes we all have a plan till we get punched in the nose. And how do you respond to stress? How do you respond to pressure? A lot of those things can be facilitated offline with a little bit of discomfort and resilience training. No, I had no idea what discomfort nor resilience training was until last summer. Last summer. I was going through a whole bunch of different weight training and I was going through a bunch of body transformation exercises. And there was a few things that I was doing that was massive really uncomfortable. But this level of comfortability started to subside. Once I began to understand how to embrace a different one of the things that I was doing I've probably talked about this in a previous episode is I did the Wim Hof breathing technique. And I would, in this Wim Hof breathing technique, I would have specific rhythms of grieving. And then after a quantity of cycles of breath, I would hold my breath. And I'd hold my breath as long as I could nothing uncomfortable. But just when I got to the point where my body needed air I breathe. And I realized that my mind, my mind was the determining factor that had the massive influence in the quantity of time I could hold my breath. After the first week of this, I noticed that my my times had jumped from beginning at a minute and 15 seconds to a maximum of three minutes and 40 seconds. The discomfort of it, the discomfort, I was able to listen and be present to the things that was going on in my mind. You know, my expectation, my capacity that I had, in my mind, was elevated through my training. In the second week of this training, part of the protocol is to take cold showers. Now, if anybody has ever accidentally stepped in the shower when the water is absolutely cold, do you know how crazy and insane this sounds, but I would begin I would, I would just start with 30 seconds, 30 seconds elevated to two minutes, two minutes, elevated to five minutes, five minutes, elevated to 10 minutes. And I realize that as long as I stayed relaxed, as long as I control my breathing as long as I did not allow the less than optimal voices in my own mind dominate. I was stress free and I was able to go through such extreme things that it began to inform how I should approach discomfort and stuff in my life. I recognize that most of the things that limit me are because I have the expectation or the assumption the conversation going on in my mind, which is limiting my output. I recently heard a conversation on YouTube of Shaquille O'Neal with his son, Shaquille O'Neal Hall of Famer one of the best centers to ever play the game multiple NBA championship winning center. He's talking to his son and his son is in a post in their plan, his son's currently going to be a senior this year in high school. And he's doing post moves. And one of the things he's he looks at his son and I he says, I bet I be a better basketball player. If I practice with somebody with a arm in my back, trying to push me away from the basket. This allows you to prepare with a real life game scenario where the pressure is on. And you're not necessarily trying to solve on the spot you're not trying to be out of your comfort zone is something that you weren't used to. When it counts. If you put that part of the system, part of the training part of the routine in from the first time. That's why when you played and you play with somebody that was over your capacity, and then you play with regular folks, you always came out on top. Another person who is a competitor of sorts is Joshua Waitzkin. One of my favorite authors and I love his mind and I also love his book. It is the art of learning by Joshua way skin. He talks about in his book, how he would play chess at Washington Square Park where people would blow cigarette smoke in his face and a curse and they laugh and they they be all different types of distraction. And he was able to really thrive in a chaos. So when he went and played chess at the high levels of his age groups and in national competitions, when he would be faced with people who are doing duplicitous and all underhanded manner of conflict underneath the table kicking him him or, or acting in all manner, he was ready for he thrives in the chaos to be able to thrive in the chaos, he knew he could win because now that they're playing on his turf, something that He has prepared for. So what the reason for this podcast is is to find your own corner of the earth that you can carve, that you can prepare for that discomfort. So you can be centered during the storm. So you can be balanced when everything around you is losing their cool the person prepared for that the person who understands the value of that the person who incorporates that will be capable of doing more when it counts. Theory is cool. Theory is great to be battled tested in the real world. That's why somebody wants somebody battle tested by their side. So they can trust that when the stuff hits the fans, they're gonna be cool as a fan. And so I'll in this episode with how I began it with this quote, We do not rise to the level of our expectation, we fall to the level of our training. So halftime talks audience, I challenge you to train as hard as you're prepared for the world. To bring the game to you. Be it life, be at work, be a family, understand how to keep your cool when the world seems like it's falling about all around you. It's possible, you're capable. And I absolutely believe in you.