Only people willing to work to the point of discomfort on a regular basis using effective means to produce that discomfort will actually look like they have been other-than-comfortable most of the time. You can thank the muscle magazines for these persistent misconceptions, along with the natural tendency of all normal humans to seek reasons to avoid hard physical exertion.
— Mark Rippetoe
Granted, Rippetoe is talking about weightlifting and exercise, but it really holds for anything and everything in life.
You watch those ice skaters during the Winter Olympics, and they look so effortless; that’s only because you haven’t seen how they have to train all those years prior to that one performance. Someone that is comfortable in front of a crowd, speaking in public… they had to do a lot of work to get up there and make it seem so natural. When you watch someone shooting a gun, like top competitors such as Rob Leatham or Julie Golob, they look so cool under pressure because they’ve put themselves under a lot of pressure. That’s how they got to the top of their game.
When it comes to self-defense, like Mark alludes to, people are unwilling to seek discomfort. Can you think of a more uncomfortable situation that being attacked? How do you think you can overcome this discomfort? You have to put yourself into it.
Try competition shooting, or at least, take shooting classes and realize that everyone else in class is watching you, sizing you up, and comparing you. Hopefully that class might have some drills or activities that put pressure on you, like having everyone shoot a drill solo while the rest of the class looks on, or doing “shoot off” elimination drills, etc..
Take some boxing classes… no cardio boxing, but something where you’ll actually get hit in face and gut.
Take some Force-on-Force training classes, where you get put into life-like scenarios and have to decide when and how to use your gun or other defensive skills and tactics.
Life is full of discomfort. Sometimes you can ignore and avoid it, but many discomforts will hound you. The only way to rid yourself of the discomfort will be to become comfortable with it.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Amen. +1. This. Other-silly-meme-that-means-that-I-agree-wholeheartedly.
The only way we grow is to push our boundaries. By definition, inside our boundaries is an area we already know well – our comfort zone. Discomfort – done appropriately – leads to growth. So it is in all things. In fact… there is no stasis. You either grow or shrink… Without discomfort, we shrink (and realize that in terms of physical fitness, that means to “shrink” in fitness level… which usually leads to growth… at the waist and other areas… 😉
Put it another way – do the work, and you’ll see the results.
Unfortunately, it’s a concept lost on a lot of people these days.
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