One More Inconvenience
Chase the inconvenient thing — the discomfort is where your other self and biggest results live.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
Mylett teaches deliberately chasing inconvenient things as a way to change your relationship with pain. Drawing on Napoleon Hill's line that on the other side of temporary pain you meet your other self, he notes that public speaking — once his biggest fear — became the arena where he discovered a real gift. When you scan your day, most people pick the convenient option; the discipline is to pick the most inconvenient, difficult thing instead, because that's precisely what produces the biggest results.
Origin
Mylett has a book chapter called 'One More Inconvenience' about chasing inconvenient things; his own most inconvenient act — public speaking, even to three people — became where he found a gift and later ranked as a top speaker.
Core principles
- 01On the other side of temporary pain you meet your other self.
- 02The inconvenient thing produces the biggest results.
- 03Changing your relationship with pain unlocks hidden gifts.
- 04Everyone does the convenient thing, which is why the inconvenient one is the edge.
How to run it
- 1
Scan for the convenient defaults
Look at your day or week and notice which actions are the easy, convenient choices everyone makes.
- 2
Identify the most inconvenient thing
Pick the single hardest, most inconvenient action available to you in that window.
- 3
Choose it deliberately
Do the inconvenient thing rather than the convenient one, changing your relationship with pain.
- 4
Push through to the other side
Move through the temporary discomfort to reach the biggest results and to meet your 'other self.'
In the wild
Public speaking, even to three people, was Mylett's greatest fear, but he pushed through the discomfort as an inconvenient thing.
→ On the other side he discovered a gift and a survey later named him the number one speaker in the world.
Mylett advises reviewing your day and doing the most difficult, inconvenient thing rather than the convenient one everyone else does.
→ The inconvenient action reliably produces the biggest results.
Common mistakes
Defaulting to convenience
Always choosing the comfortable option keeps you from the growth and results that only exist past the discomfort.
Avoiding temporary pain
Dodging short-term discomfort means never meeting the stronger 'other self' that waits on the far side of it.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone wanting one actionable daily habit that reliably produces outsized growth.
Not ideal for
People already overextended who need rest more than additional voluntary hardship.
From the transcript
“on the other side of temporary pain you meet your other self”
“do the inconvenient most difficult thing you could possibly do because that's the thing that produces the biggest results”
From the episode
YAPClassic: Ed Mylett on The Power of One More, How to Reprogram Your Mind to Get What You Want
YAPClassic