The Comfort That Kills:
Why Change Feels Risky but Staying the Same Is Fatal
Change feels risky.
I see it all the time — leaders choosing the perceived safety of slow death over the vulnerability of trying something new.
It’s a strange paradox: it feels safer to keep doing what’s not working than to take a chance on something that might fail. You can almost convince yourself that small, familiar problems are better than big, unfamiliar ones. But here’s the truth — the comfort of what you know can quietly destroy you.
We’ve all heard the story of the frog and the pot. If you drop a frog into hot water, it jumps right back out. But if you place it in warm water and slowly turn up the heat, the frog dozes off, unaware of the danger — and dies where it sits.
Most leaders don’t burn out from sudden change. They burn out because they settle in. They stop questioning. They call the rising heat stability.
As W. Edwards Deming said:
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
If you don’t like your results, it’s time to examine what you’ve built — and whether you’re mistaking comfort for control.
And here’s something I see often: leaders ask for a roadmap before they move.
They want the plan, the details, the certainty.
But you don’t get certainty when you change — you only get certainty when you stay the same.
Change, by nature, is uncertain. That’s what makes it growth.
If you want to change - really change - here’s where it starts:
Get perspective.
Don’t just tolerate feedback — crave it. Ask for truth, beg for accountability, and invite someone to challenge what you can’t see. The best leaders aren’t surrounded by yes-people; they intentionally seek out voices that tell them the truth when it’s hard to hear.
Clarify your why and bring others with you.
People run from pain to survive, but lasting change only happens when they run toward purpose. As a leader, your job is to create that vision — to define a future that’s worth the effort and the discomfort. If your team doesn’t know what they’re running toward, they’ll stop the moment things start feeling safe again.
Commit fully.
Stop testing the water. Burn the backup plan and step in. Real transformation demands commitment. Half measures are just slow-motion failure.
Build accountability.
Structure beats emotion every time. Set clear rhythms, create systems that keep you honest, and give people permission to hold you to them. When the energy fades (and it will), your structure will keep you moving.
Now lead.
You’ve modeled vulnerable leadership by asking for guidance and support. You’ve experienced what it feels like to be held accountable. Now it’s your turn to be that person for your team — the one who leads with honesty, humility, and consistency.
Change will always feel risky.
But comfort — unchecked, unchallenged, and disguised as safety — can be lethal.
As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
Growth always carries discomfort. But it’s the kind that leads to life.
That’s why we built the Business MRI — to help leaders see clearly, face truth early, and act before the water gets too warm.
Leadership means turning up the awareness before the heat turns fatal.