We are making a fundamental change in our factory this month. We are moving our packing line as close to the dispatch point as possible to reduce transportation of finished product and to free up space at the start of the assembly lines to allow growth and staging areas. From last week, our processes have been subjected to disruption, with more to come over the next three weeks. Our leadership team is accepting of this discomfort because it will lead to a new state that will ultimately be better for everyone. Our stores team will have less travel time collecting finished goods. There will be less congestion and our packing team have worked a few tweaks into their work layout to make their lives easier. It is clear that short term discomfort will result in us being closer to our goal of making tomorrow what we sell today.

Parallel to this, I have been working at getting back into exercise after what has been months of time off due to injury. And boy it hurts. Almost every muscle I have is stiff and sore. Unlike the pain from my injuries which was pain that told me to stop, this discomfort encourages me to keep going. It is the short term pain on the path to being fit and active again. It is a temporary but necessary step towards the achievement of my target vision.

Change often comes with discomfort, even change for the better. Our minds are comfortable with the status quo and reluctant to forge ahead into known obstacles and discomfort. If we focus on WHY we want to change and fix our gaze to the horizon where our ambitions hover, we can see that discomfort is merely a necessary part of following the path to true north.

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist