Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
My transformation adventure, like any other, requires a whole lot of uncomfortable feelings. Nobody tells you how to combat (or embrace, actually) the feelings associated with recognizing when something no longer fits, admitting when you’re wrong, discovering you have a blind spot or two (or more). Change is hard; transformation can truly suck…at first. If you can wade through the internal embarrassment of being a flawed human like everyone else, you’ll make it.
Endurance, tenacity, grit, gumption, and humility are what go into transformation as seedlings and emerge in blooming glory. How do you muster these things to begin with? I can tell you how it works for me. First, when something no longer fits, I feel like I’m bouncing off the walls hitting obstacle after obstacle. I have a vision of what I want to achieve, what I feel called to achieve, but I just can’t seem to make it happen. Or, I’ve achieved what I envisioned and felt called to do and just feel done. The problem is, I don’t know what to do next. I can’t see what’s next until I let go of what I’m doing. This doesn’t necessarily mean quitting your job, but sometimes it might. For me, it is really about letting go of THE IDEA of what I’m doing and why. The adventure begins when you admit you may not be doing what’s right for you moving forward.
When I deconstructed all of the assumptions I’d made about what I should and could be doing, I realized that I had repeatedly skipped over something I’d neglected exploring. The reason? I was afraid to commit to it. I’d have to learn a lot more to pull it off, and I might not succeed…but I really wanted to try. My transformation adventure began when I admitted I was unhappy with my work at the time and humbled myself enough to try something very different, requiring more work and uncertainty. Sound fun? It actually is! I didn’t think I had the energy or brainpower, but I was wrong and the excitement is back!
What we fear in transformations (or any change) is the slog of learning something that makes no sense to us now. How could it? We haven’t learned it yet! So maybe we feel incapable, or too tired to learn. But if we are tenacious, muster the grit and emotional gumption, we can humble ourselves into transformations we will love!