Surviving is not living. Our experiences can build us up or bring us down, and contrary to first impression, it is our attitude that makes the difference. The question life asks us every day is 'Are your willing to enjoy me?'.
Top of our head, we'd all say yes, but come to think of it, most of us don't know what that means. And when we see that it means pain, challenges, heart-break, excitement, disappointment, miracles, setbacks, disillusion, dreaming, trying, failing, surprises, sideways validation, heartfelt satisfaction, other shoes dropping and endless opportunity to deepen our faith in our self and to fit our purpose in the world, many of us balk.
Fear wins often.
Thriving means choosing the pain of life over the pain of fear. It is a commitment, a puzzle, and an ultimately bold decision that tends to never be regretted.
Inspiration instills in us the drive to grow, to take stock of where and who we are, good and bad, so we can take the lead and find direction for our evolution.
That clarity supports our commitment to improvement, to a truer, more centred version of ourselves, cleared of what doesn't serve us.
The natural course of our life is that we grow.
We don’t actually have to put any effort into growing, other than showing up to life… Then we are offered the experiences, views, encounters and pains that show us where to grow next.
As long as we welcome those experiences as opportunities to expand and deepen our being, and we leave out any judgement as to whether life treats us right, we will be guided right into the shoes we are meant to walk in.
We don’t know how it all ends, how it unfolds, how far we can go. Pretending like we do is a waste of time, somewhat embarrassing, both arrogant and ignorant.
When we deal with what is in front of us, put off the next fire, extend the next kindness, tackle the next chore, we are placing our trust in the unfolding, trusting that what is asked of us is that we do the thing we can, even if it isn’t much, even if it is resting, even if it doesn’t seem all that impressive, urgent or important.
Growing up is not a switch, whereby one day we’re a child, and the next day we’re a leader.
The process requires us to step into the shoes of who we want to be, and start being it. At first, it looks a lot like pretence, the shoes are too big and our posture is off. But as we walk, we gain in confidence, our stride lengthens and stabilises, we grow into those shoes until eventually, they are cut out just for us.
There is no graduation day on personal growth. There is always another challenge, another realm, another technique we can assimilate.
Thriving is a state of mind, a readiness to take that next step upward, towards a higher reality, a truer version of ourselves. This never ends.
Over time we may feel we have achieved, and this is the highest honour, but it will only ever be the best so far.
Long hauls are still walked one step at a time.
There is no merit in over-extending ourselves or planning the whole journey when so much is uncertain. It would mean acting like we know things we don't, or we are already who we will be a few steps down the path.
We will go farther focusing on this next action, getting that right, making no assumptions and having no expectation. Then we'll take the next step from there.
Change involves letting go of the old.
Sometimes, it's a relief, sometimes we don't see it happen until a new attitude takes us by surprise, and sometimes, maybe often, we feel deeply uncomfortable and want to run back and renounce the growth.
Then we need to remember than letting go of old habits, old beliefs and old shapes of ourselves allows new and better ones to settle in.
Pushing Upward
Advancement
Advancing