Howw To Stretch Outside Your Boundaries For Real Growth
What are you doing that pushes your boundaries? As we set one phase of our lives aside and push into a new one, usually around our late 30’s we start to realize that what should be new is very similar to what we’ve gone through already in our lives. Where are you trying to grow in your life? Is it your career, are you trying to switch into a new industry or start your own side hustle? Are you restarting a workout routine that you’ve left behind a few years ago? What about hobbies, now that you have more space and time in your life are you ready to pick up an activity that excited you when you were younger. Real growth comes from pushing the boundaries we’re comfortable with, to really stretch ourselves. Designing and implementing the stress we’ll put on ourselves allows us to quickly and rapidly grow. Decide where in your life you want to grow in your life and what stress you’ll need to put on yourself and stretch outside your current boundaries.
A New Purpose Starts Really Fuzzy
As we transform from where we are now we have a fuzzy picture about what we want our lives to be about and like. Because the future isn’t as fuzzy or defined as when we were in our early 20’s and 30’s we’re kind of operating blind. Our past is full of known and predetermined paths that we could follow. As we enter our 40’s and beyond, the path isn’t quite clear, there’s a lot of false starts and mislabeled routes we can take. Clearing up the fuzziness in our lives is the first step towards re-establishing your purpose. It’s diving in and swimming about, straining our muscles as we fight the current that allows us to grow and change. At times we’ll get tossed with the waves and thrown about in the undercurrent. Other times, we’ll ride on top of the waves, just coasting above all the chaos underneath us almost effortlessly. The only difference is that you choose to enter into the wide open ocean and start swimming towards a new destination, just arm yourself with a general guide and direction.
Put Yourself In A Constant Growth State
Once you start swimming you’ll have to make many course corrections, this journey you’re on isn’t going to be a linear path. Much like the journey you’ve been following the first half of your life. Dig in and remember what your early adult life was like, your first job, being on your own and building a career and life for yourself. You’ve got a ton of experience and knowledge now compared to back then, so draw upon that as you go forward. It’s critical that you draw upon your database as you experiment, stretch and grow into a new purpose for your life. If you’re diligent, you’ve been using a journal in your life as you travel. This is the best place to start and examine what you used to dream about, think about and get consumed with. An alternative if you don’t have years worth of journals is to start writing your life story, digging in and hitting the highlights. Take some time to really reflect on what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished, where and what you wanted your life to be about. Your future will be created from seeds you planted in your past that you never nurtured to growth. We all have these untended seeds in our lives, it’s the barren part of our garden that we want to revisit and get growing again.
Take The Leap And Build The Airplane On The Way Down
Combining the action of jumping in full steam ahead and using your past to guide you is the formula for initial growth in your life and a way to redefine what your transformation will be about. Don’t get hung up on the form of your strokes or getting every detail right, it will be a mess at first. Look back and reflect that when you started the career you’re on right now you didn’t have all the answers, you didn’t understand how this new world was supposed to work and you had a ton of stuff to learn. Use your past as a series of guidelines that will help you rapidly grow.
Transforming your life from what you’re doing now and defining a purpose that fuels your fire every day so you awake alive and full of energy is almost like an experiment in chaos. We have what we like to do right now, what allows us to be comfortable in our life and what we know. When we take the time to stretch and stress our muscles we see growth. We’re so conditioned to believe everything should be smooth sailing in our lives, that what we can do effortlessly is what we’re meant to do with our lives. Instead, I challenge you to accept the chaos and exhaustion, realize that these are the signs you’re moving in the right direction and really defining who you will be and what you will be doing in your future. Once you settle into your new purpose in life, it will get easier and the rewards you will receive are worth the time, energy and focus you put into finding the path.