Being Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

I wrote this blog in early April, but havent had a chance to upload it... but I think this life metaphor in the reading still applies to all of us now.  Enjoy!

You know why fishing isn't fun?  It's because you aren't catching any fish. Fishing is fun, when you catch fish.... well... maybe you fish to enjoy the weather.  But lately in central PA... the weather has been up and down.  Sometimes cold... sometimes warm... sometimes rainy... mostly rainy and flooded... but sometimes clear and sunny.  The erratic change in weather may make it hard to go out and catch fish.... but you can still catch fish... you just have to change your mindset and strategy.  But isn't that what life is all about?
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It’s hard to go out there and fish when you are cold, wet, and walking around with soggy socks.  But it doesn’t mean the fishing is going to be bad.  Don’t listen to what other people are saying!  As I approached my spots, everyone I talked to haven’t caught anything good, and telling me that it’s too flooded and the fishing is terrible.  Sometimes, you just got to try and find ways to catch fish that are willing to bite.  You just need the right lure… not bait… lure. 

Using bait, live bait… can be the best advantage to catching more fish.  On most days it might be much easier to fish with live bait than artificial lures to target aggressive predator fish.  But it is important to think outside of the box and out of your comfort zone.  Somedays… that the water is cold, muddy, flooded, and with a lot of current… well… artificial lures can be a huge advantage. 

With live bait, you are depending on predator fish to see your bait in order to eat it… waiting for the big fish to come along, and see that juicy worm, and injured bait fish to trigger big bites.  But again, some days… this wont be as effective because of weather and water conditions. 

Fish can’t see your worm or bait fish it the water it muddy, choppy, cloudy, or rainy.  But using an array of artificial lures, can be helpful, if you use something that is shiny, or loud, or bigger, or giving off a bigger vibration in the water… to lure the big fish to you. 

Even fi you are not comfortable with using artificial lures and feel that its too difficult to use them… try… it might t=be the only way you will be catching fishing on crummy days and conditions like these. 

Also… even if the conditions look less than ideal to us… might be what the fish like.  Maybe the flooded waters will bring the bigger fish closer to the shallows… or maybe the dark waters mean they won’t see you coming because the water has so little visibility.  Hence, making a brighter, louder, shinier, vibrating artificial lure a great advantage.

This is a great time to fish and try something new.  Sometimes we have to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. When uncomfortable situations arise whether in fishing or life, it will force us to embrace something creative.  Try something that you might not be comfortable in doing… but do it anyways.  Never know what the results can be. 

Life is all about being comfortable in the uncomfortable.  Not very often will life only give us pleasant and easy-going situations.  Life is full of its ups and downs, bad situations, struggles, and hardship.  Many times, we have faced being in uncomfortable situations.  But instead of complaining and being mad about it… be comfortable with it and do something to embrace it.  Sometimes it’s about how we must change in those uncomfortable situations, and not about how the conditions need to change for us.  In boot camp… we are taught to embrace the suck…. So, embrace it… be comfortable in the uncomfortable.    Change and adapt to the less tan ideal situations.  Don’t wait for conditions to change for you.  You change yourself, improve your odds, be successful, be mentally tough and be comfortable with the uncomfortable.  

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