Mayer illustrated this principle with four pivotal decisions from her own life, each of which she was decidedly not ready for: moving 2,000 miles from Wisconsin to go to college, choosing a major (symbolic systems) that 'few people would know what it means,' spending a summer in Switzerland, and in 1999, choosing to work for a startup with eight employees and a ridiculous name — Google. Each decision pushed her beyond her comfort zone, and each one turned out to be transformative. The point wasn't that every uncomfortable choice leads to success — it was that discomfort itself is a signal of growth. You either discover you can do something you didn't think you could, or you discover your limits. Either way, you've learned something valuable. Mayer also connected this to passion, noting that 'passion becomes an amazing neutralizing force for the fear or uneasiness one might usually feel.' When you care deeply about something, the discomfort of stretching beyond your capabilities becomes tolerable — even exciting.