So I was in spin class…
…the instructor talked about planting grass seed and how you have to rake the ground and lay down the seed and rake it again. (Yes; this is what we do in spin!) But wait – rake it again? What if this is a metaphor for our personal growth – that you will get knocked down but that’s not the end of it. You must break open to move to the next level? What if this is painful or just plain hard? It might be a good thing to know though. Because also, the sun will come and the rain will come and you will grow. And sometimes, maybe right now, you are in a place where you get to surrender to the breakdown. Allow yourself to be disturbed. So you can grow into the person who you are. So that you, like that grass seed, can come out of the shell that protects you. It can be scary, and also – maybe nothing is “wrong,” you will be okay. Hang on. It is so much better on the other side – when you meet yourself. Robert Frost said, “The best way out is always through.” The reward is a big one – when you meet that person who is the person who knows how to move through the tough stuff.
More To the Story
Most people have heard the story of the child helping the butterfly to emerge and how the lack of actual struggle to release itself from its cocoon will cripple the butterfly. There’s more to the story though. The thing that happens before the butterfly emerges is a complete transformation in which the caterpillar actually dissolves in order to become something else. There is so much discomfort and struggle. And yet…well, you know the result.
Move Through Discomfort
In coaching, people come to us to get something they really want – a new job, better relationships, fitness – whatever. But what they get, the thing that is so much more profound and valuable – is to see that they are the person who could have that thing they thought was out of their reach. They don’t change to become that person – they uncover that person. If you can move through the discomfort of it; if perhaps you even learn to seek out the disturbance, you will find that person – that person who is stronger than you could ever imagine. So you might as well allow it, lean in to it; it’s happening either way.
