Hello Fabulous Women!
Here’s the truth — the last few days I have been up against it – angry and irritated at some of the people I love the most, feeling discouraged, withdrawing from everyone, and generally making the world and most of the people in it wrong. To myself, I was a hardworking, much put-upon heroine – to anyone having to deal with me, I feel pretty confident saying I was a sullen brat and a poor excuse for a responsible and mature 45 year old woman.
By any chance, does this sound familiar to any of you? I hope none of you have been feeling that way yourselves lately, but let’s face it, we all do at times.
I just wanted to share with you what made a difference for me last night, and helped me get some badly needed perspective.
Like you, I am a person who is committed to my own personal growth and development. In fact, I have spent many years and quite a lot of money on my own growth and expansion, learning to overcome and let go of my limitations, creating new possibilities, taking new ground, whatever you want to call it. The fact is, when it comes to personal growth, I have been trained up the wazoo by some of the best people on the planet, and I’m no slouch myself.
None of which kept me from being a whiny, small minded brat the past few days.
Fortunately, I finally had the sense to realize that I was giving no one the chance to make any difference with me or contribute to me in any way – least of all the person who loves me the most. So I finally let go of my put-upon attitude and picked up a book that my husband has been asking me to read for, oh, about six months. (No resistance there, oh no, none at all!)
And I almost immediately got something from that book (Thresholds of the Mind by Bill Harris) that made a huge difference. Like most things that make a huge difference, it’s something I already knew, but had forgotten in the midst of my self-imposed misery and martyrdom.
What I was reminded of was this: If I am a person committed to growing, life is going to give me plenty of opportunities to do so, and that there is a point in every growing phase that just flat out stinks. Whether in your business or your marriage or your own well-being, if you are growing and expanding, there is a point when you have to give up who you think you are in order to become something more.
That’s what the “up against it” feeling is. It’s when my own limitations of who I think I am, what I think I’m capable of – how small I still hold myself to be – is being challenged by what I’m committed to creating and becoming.
Here’s a great image that someone shared with me years ago. Remember that old black and white Superman show on TV? “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive….” That one.
Well, remember how they would always show Superman just after he busted through a brick wall, standing there with his hands on his hips, head thrown back, bricks and dust flying, triumphant?
Well, here’s the thing – they never show him right before he breaks through, on the other side of the wall with his nose smashed up against it, which really had to hurt, super powers or no super powers.
That’s how I was feeling, and I just plain forgot that that’s how it feels when you are about to break through to the other side.
But if you give up because you can’t stand a little nose smashing, you don’t get the breakthrough – all you get is a smooshed nose and the continued belief that you can’t do it.
You have to keep going and remember, this is what growing feels like sometimes, and the breakthrough on the other side is worth it.
So if any of you are feeling that nose smashing sensation, like you just can’t do it anymore, remember Superman and give it that final push – push yourself in a way you never have before – and watch those bricks go flying!
Have a breakthrough day.
