I like stability and predictability in my life. It’s comfortable and safe. But, when I push myself to do things I’ve never done before or venture into the unknown, it offers tremendous growth. I can tell when I’m changing, pushing myself into new territory, because I feel uncomfortable, more tense, and also scared.The exciting thing about this is that I feel like I’m on the edge of something huge. I can tell I’m growing. Growing pains are never easy but absolutely necessary to achieve major breakthroughs.
It’s difficult to keep fighting through all the discomfort. It would be easy at that point to say, “to hell with it.” Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, calls this struggle resistance. This is exactly when you need to keep working at it, because resistance is the signal that tells you something important is about to happen. Don’t succumb to the thought of waiting, or putting it off for another day.
There’s a quote of Pressfield’s that I have at my desk, written on a piece of paper; “Did you meet resistance today?” It’s a good reminder. There are so many distractions, so many things trying to throw us off our game. But, if we work through those challenges we’ll be surprised that that’s where the growth happens. So, we have to step up and do it, even when we don’t feel like it.
At that moment when you need to toughen and keep moving forward you also have to make yourself vulnerable. You have to open up to that fact that you don’t know what will happen. That’s the paradox; being tough and vulnerable simultaneously.
I don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I can’t wait to see what it is. For now, I’m going to push myself to keep going. There’s something right on the other side of these growing pains that could turn out to be something special.
Have you ever done something outside of your comfort zone? What were the results when you did that? Were you better off for having done it?
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