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Last night I slept on an air mattress in the living room. Our condo is in the middle of a painting project, which means furniture is scattered everywhere and my bedroom is temporarily out of commission. To some people, spending the night on an airbed in the middle of a construction zone might sound miserable.
Honestly, it felt pretty normal. As I was getting ready for bed, it occurred to me why. During my time in the Army, setting up a temporary camp wasn’t an inconvenience—it was simply part of the job. For several years, I repeated the same routine over and over. Find a place, set up, make it work, sleep, pack up, and move on. After you’ve done something a few hundred times, it stops feeling difficult. It simply becomes familiar.
That got me thinking about leadership. Many situations we describe as “difficult” aren’t inherently difficult. They’re unfamiliar. The discomfort often comes less from the situation itself than from our lack of preparation for it. The only reliable way to prepare for difficult circumstances is to experience difficult circumstances.
Experience builds capability. Capability builds confidence. And confidence has a remarkable way of making yesterday’s hardship feel like today’s routine. By this morning, I wasn’t thinking about the air mattress anymore. It was just another night in the condo.
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