Change is difficult and can sometimes be paralyzing. However, in order to move beyond the current status, to grow into that next level you, to continue the next steps required on the journey to becoming your best self, there are a few important elements:
Recognize that the uncomfortable, sometimes fearful, feeling inside is pushing you to take a step.
Understand that you cannot move forward if you hold onto the current or past state of being.
Offer gratitude to the current and past states for they provided the way on your journey.
Realize that we are all made for expansion and fuller expression, which requires a path for us to express our continued expansion.
We cannot change or do anything until we recognize it. This is where meditation, walks outside, yoga, and other forms of activity that offer you to be alone with your thoughts come into play. If you have a daily practice, this may come easy. If not, begin to explore your thoughts and feelings when the internal struggle is noticed. Ask yourself clarifying questions and give time and space to hear the answer. Your intuition will tell you the next steps. Wayne Dyer illustrated this beautifully by saying, “if praying is you talking to God, your intuition is God talking to you.” Be willing to perceive the opportunity of a new you to resonate in your thoughts. The willingness is sometimes all that’s needed to catapult you into the next level.
Our inability to let go of our current state while wanting to grab onto something new only causes increased turmoil within. Think of rock climbing. Even if you’ve never rock climbed, you can agree that the main objective is to get from the bottom to the top through an intense series of climbing. Grabbing rock ledges with your hands and pulling yourself up while at the same time placing your feet on other ledges and pushing yourself up. In order for this to work, you must let go of one ledge in order to grab the next. What happens when you are comfortable with the grip you have with your hands, you are comfortable ‘standing’ on the ledges your feet are gripping and you are scared to grab the next hold? Short answer, you go nowhere and you are ultimately stagnant. Being stagnant results in complacency and complacency leads to a reversal of progression, which is the opposite of growth. In this analogy, complacency leads to climbing back down, or even worse, falling off the cliff.
So, how do we move forward in spite of the fear? Easiest way, gratitude. Let’s go back to our rock climbing visual. You are stuck, you are comfortable, the next grip is a little farther than you are comfortable with, fear kicks in, and you are not sure how to continue. After a conscious breath or two, look at your lag hand grip (representing the current or past you are holding onto). Thank it for being there when you needed it, for allowing you to hold onto it while you learned and allowed the other parts of you to catch up, for teaching you what you needed to learn in the moment, and for being the tool needed in order for you to continue progressing. Pure gratitude for the life it offered you. Then let go and reach for your next opportunity.
Staying in one place is needed at times, but just temporarily. We are for full expansion and are continually seeking ways to express that expansion. Complacency and being stagnant are in conflict with this internal force. Therefore, staying still for longer than is needed is not an option. Fear arises when we are onto something, when we are at the crux of moving beyond our current self, when we are about to prove to ourselves that our potential is yet to be fully identified, let alone expressed. Fear is the signal that it’s time to move onto the next grab, or the next step, on the new path that will take us on the continued journey to becoming our best self.
Fear then becomes our guide. Once we become aware of it in this manner, as opposed to our current understanding of fear being negative and is only there to make things difficult for us, we are able to make decisions quicker. We are able to hop out of survival mode and into thriving mode. These quicker decisions equate to us climbing to the top quicker, traversing the terrain quicker, and reaching our success (goal) quicker. We are able to grow in the intended acceleration for our lives. And it starts by recognizing where you are (holding onto both the current and the potential future), understanding that you must reach in order to move out of complacency, and you accomplish this difficult, yet rewarding, task by fully understanding, appreciating and letting go of your Gratitude Grip.
Be well, Be love,
Eric
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