Fuel Personal Growth by Deliberately Seeking Discomfort
A study at the famous Second City improv club in Chicago shows the benefits of purposely aiming for discomfort
When it comes to building athletic strength and resilience, a well-known phrase captures the process: “no pain, no gain.” That rhyming philosophy may apply to mental growth as much as muscle growth, according to research involving one of the world’s most famous comedy clubs, Second City in Chicago.
Yes, that Second City.
In this case, researchers conducted a study with cooperation from Second City improv instructors, who ran classes by giving one of two possible sets of instructions to students. One consisted of the usual directions for an improv class, presumably involving something along the lines of “yes … and.” The other instruction that some classes received was that the students should try to aim for feeling “awkward and uncomfortable” during the improv exercises.
If you’ve ever seen the best comedians doing their work, you can see them in real time making themselves — and you — as uncomfortable as possible, pushing the limits of awkwardness and embarrassment, and we can’t stop laughing until we’re crying.
