The Power of Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone
The Art of Applied Visual Thinking
The official newsletter of
Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES.
Vol. 7 No. 3 February 6, 2026
The Good Kind of Uncomfortable: Growth Discipline for Your Visual Practice
You know that feeling when you're about to try something new and your brain says, "Nah, let's just do what we already know how to do"? That's your comfort zone talking. And it's not wrong to listen sometimes. But if you only listen, you stay exactly where you are.
This is where growth discipline comes in—the kind of practice that stretches you past what's easy. It's deliberately choosing discomfort in service of expansion. Not punishment discomfort. Not proving-yourself discomfort. The kind that says, "I wonder what I'm capable of if I try this thing I can't quite do yet."
Growth discipline isn't about becoming someone else. It's about becoming more of who you already are.
Five Ways to Practice Growth Discipline
These practices will push you beyond your current edge. They're meant to feel a little awkward, a little challenging, a little exciting. Pick one that makes you think, "Ooh, I'm not sure I can do that."
1. Sketchnote Something Complex (20-30 minutes)
Find a TED talk, podcast episode, or article on a topic you care about but find challenging. As you listen or read, create a sketchnote that captures the key ideas. Not a transcript—a visual synthesis. This practice stretches your ability to listen, analyze, and translate ideas into visual form in real time. You'll fail a bit. That's the point. Each time you try, you'll get better at thinking while drawing.
2. Learn One New Visual Technique This Week
Pick something specific: hand lettering, perspective, color theory, visual metaphors, comic-strip narratives. Spend 15-20 minutes studying it (YouTube is your friend), then spend another 15 practicing it. Not mastering it—practicing it. The goal isn't to become an expert; it's to expand your visual vocabulary so you have more tools when you need them.
3. Explain Something You Know Well—Visually (30 minutes)
Choose a topic you understand deeply—your work process, a recipe, a concept you teach, how you make decisions. Now explain it using only visuals: diagrams, icons, flows, metaphors. No words allowed (or minimal ones). This
forces you to think in visual logic instead of verbal logic. It's harder than it sounds. That's why it's growth.
4. Take a Visual Thinking Workshop or Class
Join a course, workshop, or community practice session. Being in a learning environment with others who are also stretching reminds you that growth is communal, not solitary. You'll see different approaches, get feedback, and push yourself in ways you wouldn't alone. Even one session can reset your sense of what's possible.
5. Create a Visual That Scares You a Little
What's something you've been avoiding because you're "not good enough yet"? A graphic recording of a meeting? A visual strategy map? A hand-drawn diagram for a presentation? Do that. Not perfectly. Not for public consumption if that feels too big. But do it. Because growth discipline means leaning into the exact thing that makes you think, "I can't." And then finding out that maybe, with practice, you can.
Why This Matters Beyond Your Sketchbook
Growth discipline isn't just a visual thinking practice. It's a life practice.
Every time you stretch yourself in one area, you're training your brain to believe you can stretch in others. When you practice growth discipline in your visual thinking, you're actually practicing:
- Courage: Trying things you might fail at.
- Curiosity: Asking "what if" instead of "I can't."
- Resilience: Getting uncomfortable and staying there anyway.
- Adaptability: Learning to do things in new ways.
- Self-trust: Discovering you're more capable than you thought.
Think about it. The same muscles you use to learn a new lettering style are the same ones you use to have a hard conversation, start a new project, or change a pattern that isn't working.
Growth discipline in any area teaches you that discomfort isn't a sign you're doing it wrong. It's a sign you're doing it right.
The person who can sit in the awkwardness of learning visual metaphors can also sit in the awkwardness of learning a new role at work. The person who can push past "I'm not artistic" can push past "I'm not leadership material." The skill is transferable.
Your visual practice is teaching you how to grow. And how to grow is how to change. And how to change is how to become who you want to be.
Your Turn
This week, pick one growth practice. Just one. And expect it to feel uncomfortable. That's not a bug—it's the entire point.
QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK: "What would I try if I knew that struggling was part of learning, not a sign of failure?"
Here's something worth remembering: every skill you have now was once something you couldn't do. You weren't born knowing how to read, ride a bike, or send an email. You learned. You can learn this too.
Your visual thinking practice isn't asking you to be perfect. It's asking you to be brave enough to be bad at something new. That's where the magic happens.
Next time: Repair Discipline—because coming back matters more than never leaving.
Share with a friend
