Welcome to Comfort Via Discomfort

Have you ever experienced something so drastic that it changed the course of your life forever? This is what happened to me, which eventually led me to create this platform to share the experiences of myself and other everyday people around the world.

This platform, brand, and community is about normalizing that we have to be beginners before we can be experts and about sharing the challenges, traumas, & experiences that have ACTUALLY contributed to who we are and what we’ve accomplished.

We talk about our fears, how to get past them, how to change your mindset, and what else you can do to take the next step in your life.

It is truly incredible what we can accomplish when we come together around a powerful mission. Join us in embracing discomfort and vulnerability to help others around the world to live their best life. Even if we help just ONE person out there, the world will be a better place and we’ll have accomplished our goal.

Growing up, I was a talented and smart kid that loved to show off to friends, family, and even strangers because I could pick up almost anything and be good at it relatively quickly. I was rewarded and sometimes praised for this and started hearing other peoples’ expectations of me at a young age. I never wanted to be bad at anything because I never wanted to let anybody down; I didn’t want to disappoint them or be seen as a failure. So when things got tough or too difficult, I ran away or quit, which caused me to develop a huge fear of failure. This started in sports but made its way into other areas of my life and eventually led me down a very dark path.

In 2012, I moved across the country to Vancouver, BC to play football for Simon Fraser University. Three weeks after I moved there, my dad was diagnosed with cancer (he’s been cancer free for 9 years now, don’t worry!). With no close friends and a macho man mentality, I didn’t talk to anybody about what I was going through and, instead, started acting out. I was drinking, I was stealing groceries every other week to save 100 bucks, I was not a great boyfriend to my significant other, and I almost ended up on academic probation. Then, in 2013, I made a very drastic decision. I was so unhappy with my life and wanted to change SO many things… but to do that, I knew I needed to have so many uncomfortable conversations with the people I loved most and I was so scared I would disappoint them. 

My fear of failure was so bad, that instead of dealing with my problems one at a time, I decided I wanted to avoid all of them by attempting suicide.

I am thankful every single day that didn’t go as planned.

After living with my parents for four years, in 2017 I was planning to go elsewhere to get a Masters in International Business so I could take the next step in my life. I was TERRIFIED! I knew I needed to leave to take this next step and accomplish my goals, but everything from 2013 came flooding back in. I wanted this time to be different, so I made 2018 my Year of Discomfort.

I started doing things with friends and family that scared me or were out of my comfort zone. I wanted to activate my fight or flight (stress) response to learn how my body reacts to stress and how to overcome it. I thought that if I activated it enough times, it wouldn’t be so unfamiliar and scary. And I was right. Every time I did something outside my comfort zone, I learned something new about myself or about life, and I’d gain a little bit more confidence that I could figure things out in a stressful situation. 

This new sense of confidence has led to so many possibilities and has allowed me to do things I only dreamed about in 2013. 

I’ve met incredible people from around the world, traveled through parts of Europe, formed much deeper relationships with my friends and family, and developed the ability to deal with the everyday stress of life in a much healthier way. Most importantly, though, this mindset has given me the confidence to be 100% myself and to pursue the life that I want. My mission now is to help other people around the world to do the same.