Maybe this is helpful in the USA, but I hardly see how knowing anything about this counts as "personal growth"? There are plenty of things you can know that actively make you a worse person by making you depressed and thus less engaged with things you can actively act upon.

If I shied away from discomfort, I would be an angry, lonely, sheltered person and exactly the opposite of who I want to become.

Can someone help me understand this please? With an example? I haven't read the paper, just the abstract. I can barely understand the abstract, I am not going to understand the paper.

Per the paper, does the "discomfort" need to be in the same arena as that of the "motivation" one wants?

E.g.: If I want to learn a new language, does the discomfort need to relate to the language, or is it enough to do something like taking cold showers?

(FWIW, I have a strong suspicion that most Psych papers, including this one, have inadequate evidence. But I still like to understand what they're claiming.)

The spiritual path -- i.e. the Path of Love -- is the journey to learning how to cause more happiness and less unhappiness. Note that doing that is the most important way to really improve the society and cultures we are a part of.

Like Dunning-Kruger's true-experts in any field of endeavor, the seeker of self-improvement must humbly and honestly search themself to find out which of the vices we tend to use to justify our selfish ideals, attitudes, and behaviors. Once found, we must then ceaselessly fight against manifesting them and instead choose their virtuous counterparts. Compassion is the foundation of all the virtues, but we must develop and aim our moral compass.

To love someone is to want them to be happy such that you selflessly act for their benefit. That is the only goal of the spiritual path, for the universe really prefers us to explore its wonders in peace and happiness and utter enjoyment; Earth was made for just that. And yet, it's always our choice whether to harmonize with that optimal organization and participation, or selfishly avoid it if only by denying its optimality; to either increase one's humanity, or to fall short and descend further into callous disregard or even savagery.

"Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries." --Rumi

Uhm, screw you?