I’ve been frequenting The Bar Method for the last few months. It’s my favorite exercise – you get results, the workouts are efficient and never boring, and I just love the spa-like facility!
When talking to the owner, Carolyn, after the end of a challenging workout, I asked her “So when does it ever get easier? I’ve been coming for a few months now and I still struggle through half of it”. She smiled and said “It never gets easier – you keep challenging yourself to the next level, and I’ve been doing it for years and I still find it challenging.”
Gulp. It never gets easier??? I went through a moment of despair right then and there. So that day will never come – the day where I can claim I’ve mastered The-Bar-Thing and put that under my belt as “been there, done that, got the T-shirt”?
On my drive home it dawned on me that the notion of expecting something to become easier over time can be flawed. We go through life hoping to get to that place where things are easy, life is good, and we can just coast. We strive for mastery, for the view at the top of the mountain, for a chance to boast that we have arrived.
I have now embraced a new paradigm for my Bar class – I understand that in order to improve and to grow, discomfort is part of it, and pushing and stretching is required to get to the next level. The moment when things become easy is the moment growth stops.
Business is no different. To grow your business, you are likely going through discomfort, and wanting to get to that place where things become easier. Perhaps consider this – that if you frame discomfort as a sign of growing, you might learn to welcome it as a good thing. If you are interested in taking business to the next level, you’re going to experience it.
The difference is whether you are cringing at the thought of growth, or whether you are embracing it?
Great post Felicia. I’m embracing! I’m embracing!