Choose Your Hard: Why Discomfort Builds a Better Life Wih Prof Grant Schofield

Nov 4, 2025

In this engaging chat, Professor Grant Schofield, a public health expert and author, dives into why embracing discomfort can lead to a better life. He explains the concept of hormesis, emphasizing that challenges like exercise build resilience. Grant also discusses the dopamine crisis affecting youth mental health, sharing insights from personal experiences, including taking away gaming from his son. He advocates for mindful practices such as single-tasking and Acceptance Commitment Therapy to foster resilience, highlighting the transformative power of choosing hard things.

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INSIGHT

Choose Discomfort To Build Resilience

Modern life removes hormetic stressors so we must choose manageable discomforts to build resilience.
Exercise, controlled food stress, heat and cold exposures restore baseline reward and health.

INSIGHT

Dopamine Overload Lowers Baseline Mood

Reward-system overstimulation from devices, processed food and vaping downregulates baseline mood.
This creates chronic psychological distress especially in young people who need more dopamine to feel neutral.

ANECDOTE

Gaming Removal Restored Son's Baseline

Grant removed his son's gaming access and saw mood, appetite and social engagement return within weeks.
The dysregulated behaviour normalized once high-dopamine stimuli were removed.

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This week on the podcast, on the 5th anniversary of Mikkipedia, Mikki speaks to returning guest AND the very first guest ever on the podcast, Professor Grant Schofield. They chat about the value of doing hard things in a time where almost everything is comfortable and easy. This is on the back of Grant’s soon to be released book on the topic and this episode is a conversation between two friends and colleagues about the important pillars of doing hard things and how they integrate this principle into their own lives.

Grant is a Professor of Public Health at Auckland University of Technology, former Director of the University’s Human Potential Centre, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, co-author of four best-selling books and Chief Science Officer for PREKURE.

Professor Grant’s career has focused on preventing the diseases of modern times, and seeing what it takes to help people live a long, healthy and happy life.

He lives and breathes the motto “be the best you can be”, and sees this as a game-changer for the health system – capable of transforming the current health (sickness) model, to one in which we aspire to be well. He is redefining public health as the science of human potential; the study of what it takes to have a great life.

Grant is well known for thinking outside the box and challenging conventional wisdom in nutrition and weight loss, as well as physical activity and exercise.

He brings his fluency across several scientific disciplines – from human physiology, to psychology, to peak performance – to his role at PREKURE, where he delivers world class training in lifestyle medicine

Grant’s What the Fat books can be sourced here: https://profgrant.com/books/

You can find Grant through the following avenues.

Grant Schofield Blog: https://profgrant.com/

Pre Kure https://prekure.com/

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