Nate Burleson knows how I feel.
It’s not often that I can say that about a professional athlete. There’s very little in my life that is reminiscent of anything they experience. I’m not complaining about that, I am simply stating a verifiable fact.
But last week, as I interviewed Burleson in the cafeteria of the Times Square studio where “CBS Mornings!” is filmed I found myself nodding along as Burleson explained his decision to move to New York six years ago.
“I remember coming home to my wife,” Burleson said, “and I’m like, ‘Look, the NFL is launching this morning show in New York, and they want me, but I’m not going to do it.’ “
He had only recently retired after 11 years in the NFL, and while he was working a couple of days a week at the NFL Network that was in Los Angeles, which was close to his home in Arizona. This was New York. The East Coast. It was every day, and it was early. Really early.
“I don’t want to wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning,” Burleson remembers saying. “I’m done like stressing myself out.”
He kept thinking about it, though. And then came a breakthrough.
“It happened in one instant,” he said. “I walked into a bathroom when my Mom and my wife were in the kitchen. And I’m looking in the mirror, and I’m like, ‘Man, you’re a phony. You don’t want to go to New York because it will make you uncomfortable.’
“You always tell your kids, ‘Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.’ You go speak at these schools and these juvenile centers, and you speak at these events, these corporate events, and you tell people that there’s beauty in discomfort. And here you are complaining about moving to a new place and waking up at an earlier time. Man, you’re weak.
“And I’m just having this moment in the mirror, and my shoulders slump, and I basically agree with myself. And I’m like, ‘You’re right. I have to take this job.’ “
He did more than just take the job, he ran with it. He worked as a correspondent for Extra!, too, and has an absolutely hilarious story about interviewing J.Lo, and Burleson is nearing his one-year anniversary as co-host of “CBS Mornings” along with Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil. I’m writing a profile on Burleson’s evolution that will run in “Seattle Magazine” later this year.
Now my situation isn’t at all like that. I didn’t choose to take a job in New York, my wife did, and I wanted her to do so even though it meant leaving the city where I’d covered sports for the past 20 years first as a newspaper reporter and then as a radio host.
What resonated with me was what Burleson said about the value in feeling uncomfortable. Of pushing boundaries. The reality is that change is difficult and it is intimidating and it is easier not to do it, but change can also be transformative and open your eyes to possibilities that you didn’t know existed. It’s a way to meet the job you love.
I’ve tried to remind myself of this repeatedly over the past year. That being uncomfortable is actually a good sign. It means that I am pushing up against and hopefully through the boundaries of what I was comfortable with.
I have done this before. Back in 2013, I left a job I was reasonably competent at in writing for The Seattle Times to work in radio, a medium where I had been a part-time player. I can still remember the day that I introduced Aaron Goldsmith as Aaron Goldschmidt. I realized my mistake based on the reaction of my co-workers. I was quiet for a good minute or so, just staring off into space and wondering what I had done. But I eventually found my bearings both for that interview and my career.
I was still living in the same city, though, and talking about the same team I had always covered. Now, I’m in a different city trying to make my own job and I don’t even have a boss to please. It’s totally understandable why this would be uncomfortable or I might be sensitive to a former co-worker expounding on the stupidity of what I just wrote. But that’s not just understandable, it’s good. There’s a benefit in being uncomfortable.
And it was awesome to see what change has opened up for Burleson. There’s one thing Burleson was right about, though. It is early in the morning. I set my alarm for 4 a.m. last Thursday and was out of bed by 4:15 to meet him at the “CBS Mornings!” studio for a story that will be published in Seattle Magazine later this year.
Now, there is a slight risk of posting this. After all, Jim Moore has a well-documented aversion to any discussion of adult acne. However, one of the “Faithful Few” alerted me to this Instagram post from KeKe Palmer, which I felt at a very visceral level in light of my well-documented issues with my skin:
“Good morning y’all, I was just thinking about the fact that plastic surgeons are amazing, OK. They can give you a boob job above the muscle, under the muscle, lyposuction, tummy tuck, BBL. They can even implant muscles. The list goes on. But they can not figure out how to clear up somebody’s skin? Are you kidding me? All of these years, and all of these inventions, you can’t figure out how to take the beautiful skin from my ass and put it on my face? I’m tired of it. I’m done with it. People out here with adult acne are struggling and you ain’t figured out that cure? I’m done.”
— keke
A more succinct summary: “My homegirl’s walking out the hospital with a DONK same day. I want INSTANT results too.” I’ll co-sign that.