The Discomfort Zone
Growing your “Discomfort zone” is the foundation of progression, especially in snowboarding. It’s the absolute base—the thing that determines how fast you improve. There’s no progression, no learning new tricks, without putting yourself in scary or uncomfortable situations. You have to try things you haven’t done yet, even if they terrify you.
Seems obvious, right? But something clicked for me when my mentor and snowboard coach, Sam Marcotte (Thank you Sam, if your reading this), really drove this point home. That moment changed the course of my progression and sent it skyrocketing.
“If you want to get good at snowboarding, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
I remember how those words stuck with me for the next 24 hours. It was so simple, yet so impactful. Sam made it clear: if you want to improve at snowboarding (or life), you need to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Because the next time you’re in that situation, you’ll have experience, and it won’t feel as uncomfortable anymore. And then the next time, and the next—until one day, what once scared you feels normal.
That’s what it means to grow your uncomfort zone, and I owe a lot of my progress in snowboarding to this single philosophy: being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Your Discomfort Zone Is a Muscle
Think of your “Uncomfort Zone” like a muscle—it gets stronger the more you train it.
When you first start working out, you can barely lift any weight. Maybe you bench 80 lbs for a few reps, and your one-rep max is 100. But over time, through repetition, 80 lbs starts to feel light, so you move up to 90 lbs, then 110, and so on. The more you push, the stronger you get. Eventually, what was once your max weight becomes something you can rep out easily.
Growing your uncomfort zone works the same way. The more you put yourself in uncomfortable situations, the more you adapt, and the less uncomfortable they become.
Think about it. The first time you hit a rail, a box, or a jump, it felt terrifying. But after some reps, you got used to it. Then, new tricks became the next scary thing—board slides, 180s on jumps. But you practiced, got comfortable, and leveled up again. Now maybe it’s 360s that scare you, or 180s onto rails. This cycle is what growing your uncomfort zone looks like.
Practicing Discomfort Outside of Snowboarding
Learning to be comfortable with discomfort is a skill—a skill you can practice and get better at. And the more you do it outside of snowboarding, the faster you’ll level up on the mountain.
Trying new tricks is scary. But what if you could train yourself to embrace that fear? What if you could expand what you consider “comfortable” and push past your mental limits? The truth is, you can. And once you do, your progression will skyrocket.
Here’s some things you can do in everyday life to grow out of your current discomfort zone:
- Have coffee with a stranger. Strike up a conversation with someone at a café or bakery (especially if they’re older—they’ll probably love to talk).
- Approach a girl you find cute and try to hold a decent conversation (sometimes your heart will pound harder than when you’re about to send your scariest trick).
- Identify your insecurities. Ask yourself, “How can I overcome this?”, and then go do exactly that.
- Cold Plunge. in the middle of winter, – 20.
- Give thanks to your bus driver, the chef at the restaurant, whoever. go out of your way for it. get uncomfortable.
Pushing yourself outside of snowboarding will make you level up even faster on the board. Discomfort is the key to growth. The more you lean into it, the more unstoppable you become.rapidly, inside snowboarding.
End Notes
Growing your uncomfort zone is the key to leveling up—not just in snowboarding but in life. Every time you push past fear and step into discomfort, you expand what’s possible for you.
Like a muscle, the more you work it, the stronger it gets. What once felt terrifying becomes second nature, and suddenly, you’re chasing even bigger challenges. Take this mindset beyond the mountain—practice discomfort in everyday life, and watch how it fuels your progression everywhere. Because in the end, mastering discomfort is the real trick, to learning new ones on the hill.
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