Growth

Growth occurs a few inches at a time.

Trees leaning to reach the sun, the water, or simply catching themselves before they tumble to the ground, growing in whatever way they need in order to thrive has always amazed me. They beautifully demonstrate the saying that you’ve heard a thousand times, “If you aren’t growing, you are dying.”

Imagine if we as humans kept reaching for the essential elements of our lives as if our existence depended upon it. What if we were completely willing to stretch beyond any and all obstacles to reach our dreams?

Growth can be stimulated from the smallest of steps; it doesn’t always need to be an earth-shaking event. Honestly, sometimes the tiniest experience can provide a boost that we never could have anticipated. When toddlers take their first step, that is a literal life-altering event, however it can be measured with a six-inch ruler.

For most of my life I had been paralyzed by the fear of heights. I would avoid them at all costs until recently during an amazing family vacation where I took the picture of the courageous leaning palm tree. Our kids wanted to go zip lining in the jungle. To me, this meant swinging to and from the mountainous treetops on a piece of wire high, very high, yes extremely high above the ground! Yikes!

So we board the bus and head to the zip line country. We arrive and go through our training session with the highly skilled guides, then off we go to the tower.

Climbing the tower, step by step I was faced with a decision every six inches, do I stop or do I go one more step.  Every step my heart beat a little faster and louder until I reached the top of the tower and now my heart was racing and pounding out of my chest.

I watched each of our kids and my husband buckle in and push away from the platform and as they arrived on the other side they stretched their hand out to pull themselves onto the next platform. They had embraced the experience and were viewing life from a whole new perspective at tree top level!

I had a decision to make. Am I going to continue to allow this fear to limit my life or am I going to trust myself, push beyond my comfort zone and step off the platform? 

The few minutes it took me to gain the clarity that I needed felt like an eternity, however I decided I was ready! The guide buckled me in, and then he buckled himself right in behind me and off we went. I screamed the entire ride and my heart was throbbing, however there was growth happening!

When we arrived on the other side, the feeling was exhilarating…I had done it. I had overcome the obstacle; the fear and I knew I could do it again. So I buckled in and went on the next leg of the journey by myself.

We continued to climb along the side of a mountain to reach the next zip and there was no way back except through from this point forward. I continued to stretch and grow with every step and scream of terror, oh oops I meant to say, scream of joy! 

The picture of this cactus, taken from the highest point of the excursion, continues to remind me that as an entrepreneur, mum and wife I can choose to stretch and grow to reach new levels in my life and business every day and it all starts with one decision to move six inches.

Where are you letting fear limit you in the way you experience your life and business? What if you decided to grow in whatever direction needed to move beyond your discomfort and you began with one small step today? What would that step be? Remember to breathe and embrace the ride!

Enjoy,

Kris

Learning to move through the fear can feel scary and exhilarating at the same time. If you would like to discover what small step you could take today, click here to set up a free discovery session with me.