I have discovered the writings of Martin Avis... and this message arrived today. Read it carefully and commit to making yourself "uncomfortable."

"All of us tend to live within a narrow boundary that we define as our own comfort zone. We know that pretty much anything that we attempt between the walls that we've internally agreed upon is possible for us to achieve.

Anything outside those walls may present a challenge.

And a challenge, God forbid, may make us fall flat on our faces.

When did we learn such defeatist behaviour?

When we were kids we didn't say, 'I'd better not learn to walk in case I fall over'. No - we fell over. Over and over again.

And most of the time we probably rolled around laughing about it.

We didn't refuse to speak in case we said something wrong. We DID say things wrong, and people laughed at us. But we learned.

We didn't look upon writing as something other people did. We practiced until our chicken scratches were intelligible (and if they never did become intelligible we went to medical school).

And then we didn't say to our teacher, 'I can't write a story today because I've never done it before.' We just accepted that this was another challenge to get on with.

So when did you, and I, learn to fear being uncomfortable?

What sets people who achieve great things apart from the majority of people who achieve nothing is the degree to which they are struck motionless by their fear of being uncomfortable.

So today, make an agreement with yourself that you will do one thing that will make you uncomfortable.

Embrace that discomfort and see it not as a harbinger of doom and defeat, but as a break in the clouds that brings a ray of sunshine to light up your world of opportunities.

If you try to make yourself uncomfortable every single day the walls that surround you won't just expand, they'll crumble to reveal a fantastic and exciting world that is yours for the taking."