Earlier this year, I was hired to work at Stellantis in Chennai, a city 550 kilometers away from my hometown. Before that, I had spent over seven years working at Caresoft Global, located just 4 kilometers from my home. Moving to Chennai was a significant change and a challenge for me, as it meant leaving behind the comfort zone I had built in my native place.
When I first arrived in Chennai, the city was buzzing with metro rail construction. At several sites, I noticed barricades with the words: “Inconvenience today for a better tomorrow.”
Those words resonated with me. I took them as a reminder to embrace the discomfort I was facing in this new phase of my career.
Once I joined the company, discomfort was no longer a choice—it became an inevitable part of life. I had no alternative but to endure it, as my livelihood depended on it. I pushed through sleepless nights traveling back and forth between my hometown and Chennai twice a month. I dealt with poor-quality food, cramped living conditions with unhygienic shared toilets, hard water that caused hair fall, an arrogant landlord, the overwhelming crowds, the modern workplace culture, extreme heat, and pollution.
Despite all these struggles, I recently left Stellantis due to family reasons. By Allah’s mercy, I have now been blessed with a livelihood that surpasses what I earned there. Looking back, I see how Allah placed me in discomfort to teach me invaluable life lessons and ultimately reward me with greater blessings.
Without the “inconvenience” I endured yesterday, today could not have been better.
This experience has made me reflect on how this philosophy applies to every aspect of life.
We all know what we need to do to improve our lives. Yet we avoid it because it feels hard, uncomfortable, or boring. But when life inevitably forces us to face those challenges, we somehow muster the strength to push through—gritting our teeth if we have to.
Take a recent example from my own life. My passport’s validity was nearing its expiration, and I didn’t feel like renewing it. Since I wasn’t planning any air travel in the near future, it logically seemed unnecessary to have a renewed passport. I knew that it would be essential someday, but at the time, it felt illogical to my mind. However, I also realized that delaying it would lead to more complicated processes later. So, I forced myself to act: I spent ₹1,500 on the renewal application, gathered all my original documents, printed the required forms, traveled 50 kilometers to the passport office, and spent three hours completing the process. None of it was pleasant. But I had no choice—it was inevitable.
Looking back, I’m glad I did it. When I’m flying somewhere in the future, I’ll be grateful that I endured that temporary discomfort.
We all know what we need to do to improve ourselves. But laziness often gets in the way. What if we ignored that inner resistance? What if we embraced the pain, faced the discomfort, and simply did what needed to be done?
If we did, we would become unstoppable and disciplined. Most importantly, our future selves would thank us. As the saying goes, “Inconvenience today for a better tomorrow.”
And Allah beautifully reminds us of this in the Quran:
Translation:
Verily, along with every hardship is relief,
Verily, along with every hardship is relief.
Qur’an 94:5-6, Tafsir ibn kathir