I both love and hate this quote by Tim Ferriss:
“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”
There’s a simple, first principles reason why it makes sense though.
Since we don’t live in a perfect world where we all sing and dance in harmony with each other and the universe... we’re kind of bound to be at odds with someone or something.
Maybe you love pizza but your spouse insists on salads every night.
Maybe you have three big goals, but you can only pick one.
Maybe you hired the wrong person and they're dragging others down.
That’s kind of life in a non-perfect world though.
Uncomfortable conversations are about addressing things that are at odds, for the sake of resolution if not for making things better.
Say life is a journey and every uncomfortable conversation is a jungle. It would be hard to get where you want to go if you insist on avoiding them. Going around every jungle is less messy in the short-term, but it’s harder to say where you’ll end up.