Death By Comfort: How Modern Life is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It

Death By Comfort: How Modern Life is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It

| Paul Taylor, 2023

What’s It All About?

What a title! I love when you can tell what a book is about just by the first few words in the title, and the message of Paul Taylor’s Death by Comfort: How Modern Life is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It is clear right away: if you’re too comfortable, it can kill you. If you want to strive for growth, resilience, and sustainable well-being, discomfort is actually essential.

Throughout Death by Comfort, Paul gives a harsh-but-fair look at how we’re living our lives. As an exercise physiologist, nutritionist, and neuroscientist getting his PhD in psychology, Paul is a definite expert, and in his book, he cuts to the chase with great research and non-stop actions you can take to change the way you approach discomfort.

This book is especially impactful for manufacturing leaders. With the rise of automation and AI technology, the manufacturing industry has more tools at its disposal than ever before. But while these tools may seemingly make day-to-day operations more convenient, us humans end up more depressed, medicated, and overweight.

In Death by Comfort, Paul delves deeper into this issue and offers a solution: a comfort revolution! By embracing discomfort and changing our mindsets, we can adopt new, more resilience habits like staying active, managing stress, or even stepping outside our comfort zones. Then, we can use these new habits to improve your leadership, increase team engagement, and achieve better results, both on and off the manufacturing floor.

Favorite Quote

Regarding doing a boring job and not having high performance: “That’s because your brain needs a certain amount of stress(we scientists call this ‘arousal) in order for it to become interested in performing (but not too much, or we become overloaded).”

Biggest Takeaway

In industries like manufacturing, where physical activity is a crucial part of daily tasks, team members on the floor often stay physically active . . . but this isn’t the case for others, like leaders who might not be involved in on-the-floor operations. As a result, manufacturing professionals are rapidly becoming sedentary and too comfortable, which can lead to a host of issues, from physical illnesses to a disconnect between the top and the shop.

Discomfort seems like a strange solution. But as Paul proves in his research, discomfort is a powerful force when it comes to building resilience, improving focus, and growing your leadership capabilities. Think of discomfort not as a negative force, but as a vehicle for self-growth and a key to unlocking your higher potential.

Bonus Information

In the fall of 2024, I got to share the stage with Paul Taylor at the Genos Emotional Intelligence global conference in Bangkok. Paul was the guest keynoter for the conference, and I was moved by his keynote, which lead me to read his great book and listen to his podcast. Now, I’m excited to have Paul as an upcoming guest on my own Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast.

Tune in soon to the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast to hear from awesome insights from Paul!

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

In manufacturing, we’re all familiar with stress. But did you know that a lack of challenges and too much comfort can also have a negative impact on your health, mindset, and productivity? This is the core concept Paul Taylor presents in his great book Death by Comfort: How Modern Life is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It. As a former British Royal Navy crew member and a current Ph.D. candidate in applied psychology, Paul has in-depth knowledge about stress, resilience, and performance.

In this episode on stress, comfort, and psychological safety, Paul draws from his own experiences and research to delve deeper into why discomfort and challenging situations build confidence and resilience, plus shares some of his favorite methods for rethinking how you perceive stress and engage with your team.

2:20 – In manufacturing, stress can be inevitable, so you need to find the right level of stress in your environment 3:36 – You can use principles from physical fitness and apply them to stress management 7:11 – To stay healthy and keep a productive mindset, you need to balance stress and recovery 11:54 – When you practice self-efficacy and do hard tasks, it builds your confidence 16:21 – Uncomfortable yet necessary conversations play a key role in workplace environments 17:38 – To change and improve how you give feedback and have challenging conversations, use the SBI (situation-behavior-impact) model 18:36 – Use the OARS model for motivational interviewing to encourage open questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summarizing 24:58 – Take time to understand your purpose and the impact of your work 24:58 – Don’t overlook the role of accountability in psychological safety

Connect with Paul Taylor Visit his website Listen to The Paul Taylor Podcast Buy Death by Comfort on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller Read my book report on Death by Comfort