Thoughts about life and personal growth welled up as I replaced our daughter’s car seat with one that would be more comfortable for her as she grew. Our little girl was growing up fast and it seemed like only yesterday I had put that original car seat in.
As I completed the new installation, thoughts of the snake that sheds its old skin, or the butterfly that breaks free from its cocoon quickly bubbled to the surface. A reflection on life had been staring me right in the eyes the whole time.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
How does a car seat connect with personal growth?
As children get older, many things (car seats included) need to grow right along with them in order to help facilitate that growth. To watch a child grow and expand (which happens very quickly, by the way), makes you think about your own personal growth as well.
As a parent, there are moments that give you a glimpse into the future or a memory from the past. Parenthood also gives you the ultimate perspective that our physical lives are absolutely limited, and we have to do what we can with the time we’ve got. You see, the car seat was a perfect representation that growth happens, and sometimes it happens like it or not.
Maybe you’re comfortably nestled in and happy with where you are in life. You’ve released your full potential, but that’s ok, as long as you’re happy. True happiness is true wealth and the key to living the life YOU desire.
But what if you’re not comfortable?
What if you feel a tension inside that’s holding you back from where you want to be? If you feel it (and we’ve all felt it at some point), it’s time to grow, and release what’s prohibited you from reaching your peak. But you’ve got to be willing to get uncomfortable and start letting go of your current reality. If you’re really ready to grow, you’ve got to accept and look forward to what could be, not what is.
“…Even the mightiest of redwoods would be but a bonsai if never freed from its restrictive planter.”
When growth happens from the inside, the outside becomes unstable. Not because we’re acting in an unstable manner from our desire to change, but because the outside cannot stay as it is if the inside is changing. It will eventually change with us or be released from our experience, this is law. The world around us is simply a reflection of the world within us.
Sometimes, you’ve got to shed that old skin if you want growth to happen. You’ve got to break out of that comfortable cocoon that’s housed you all this time. Even the mightiest of redwoods would be but a bonsai if never freed from its restrictive planter.
So ask yourself, “Is there something still out there that calls me? What in the world do I still want to experience?” and if an answer comes to mind, congratulations! You’re still alive and have time to do it. Start today. Start now. You’ve got one go-around in this body and you might as well continue to grow until the sun stops shining!
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