In this piece, I’ll talk about growth vs warning discomfort, some ways to that I distinguish between the two, and some personal examples.
A few months ago, early in my role as an engineering manager, someone asked me if I enjoyed being an EM. I had to admit that no, I was not enjoying it per se - yet. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad I made the transition from IC to EM. I find the role deeply rewarding and plan to stay on the EM path for the foreseeable future. But the reason that I wouldn't yet describe it as enjoyable at that time is that I spend much more of my time doing things that I don't yet consider myself good at and things that I may be good at but require a big chunks of energy.
However, I explained, I was also confident that the “not enjoying” state would be temporary. With practice and iteration, the things that require a lot of energy would slowly require less. Things that I find intimidating would become core skills. In effect, I was intentionally working through discomforts.
This might sound familiar to anyone who has picked up a sport before. I’m reminded of my first day of cross country practice in high school. I was exhausted after running a single mile. The idea of running a 5k/3.1 miles at all, not to mention competitively, seemed like a pipe dream. However, with consistent effort over time, my mind and body adjusted to the demands of the sport. What was once a distant goal became something that I did several times a week every week.
Back to the EM role. This sense of assurance that things would work out comes from reflecting on what kinds of discomfort I was experiencing. I’ve come to think of discomfort in two categories.
<aside> 💡 Growth discomfort shortens the distance between who you are and who you’d like to become. Keep going.
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How this pertains to imposter syndrome is to acknowledge deep within myself that I am NOT an imposter. I am a leaner. And learning is part of the job.
Sources of growth discomfort for me over the past few months have been