How understanding this one simple concept has changed my life in just a week
Everyone can read books and listen to podcasts, but there’s a quicker way to your personal growth and expanding your comfort zone.
Everything in life is a process. If we want things to change, we have to put in the work, because change just doesn’t happen overnight. Same thing with personal growth. It is very rarely that you read one sentence and your entire mindset changes. If you feel like something clicked, if you realise something that gives you a new perspective on how you do things or feel about yourself — a lot of tiny little steps along the way had to happen to lead up to this point.
Do you do YOU?
Do you make time for your own personal growth? Read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos, learn new skills? My journey of personal growth started about 3,5 years ago, when I was stuck in the only corporate job I ever had and knew I needed a change. A lot of stories from travellers and digital nomads I have met in the past few years start like that, it’s a classic. ;)
And there’s something more we all have in common: We strive for a life of personal freedom and fulfilment, a life in which we can all be raw and authentic, pursuing happiness and giving back. Everyone has their own kind of challenges in that matter and that’s ok, everyone also has their own journey and their own pace. Speaking for myself, I definitely have always wanted to just be ME and do ME (obviously not being very clear about what that actually meant, but ready to find out).
The journey to gaining clarity isn’t always pretty
Ever since I have left that job and started focusing on my journey of personal growth I have met amazing people along the way and learned so many things that changed my perception of the world we live in and my own self. There were many situations, where I felt like I just made a huge step forward and was super pumped and proud of myself. *YAY*
On the downside, when the Highs in your life are higher than ever before, the Lows can be much lower than ever before as well. Just because the gap in between them is so much bigger. I fell, a lot. And it hurt. And I had times where I wished, I had never started with personal development at all, because I understood it all now, I analysed my own behaviour and went down to dig as deep as I possibly could to find answers to my problems with the questions and techniques I had learned over time. How fu*king exhausting!
Why do we continue?
As much as we ever so often get stuck on that journey, once we have felt those Highs, we want more of them. Kind of like addicts. I often have those small realisations or Aha-moments when I am reading, listening or watching something and I love the feeling of understanding something better, I love these tiny achievements. Things stick out, because — looking back at it now — I needed them in that specific moment to learn and grow, which is amazing.
On the other side, so many times it happens, that we understand things in our mind and they make sense, but we still don’t behave in that way. And we get frustrated with ourselves, knowing that we fully comprehend the information, but just can’t seem to apply it to our everyday life.
And then we have these big AHA moments. They are those moments when you feel like pieces of a puzzle finally fit together and everything makes sense. And in one of those moments I realised that I just hadn’t been ready before. Maybe there was something else, that I needed to learn along the way or another person, who I needed to meet to finally close the gap between understanding it in my brain and actually feeling the truth in my heart.
The last piece of the puzzle
This time, the moment, when everything finally made sense to me happened on January 7th, just a week after starting the 90 day content challenge with Patrick and Those That Inspire.
One week into the challenge I felt kinda lost and asked Patrick, if he could spare some time for a chat. Already one hour later we were on a call together talking about some of my insecurities and old limiting beliefs that had come up. That’s when he recommended, no he urged me to watch this video on Youtube. Even after the call he told me once more to have a look at it, so I did!
We get suggestions by friends every single day of books to read, podcasts to listen to and videos to watch — nothing special, right? Well this time it was a game changer! If I can ask you to just watch ONE video today, it would be this: 2 years of YES in 7 minutes by the Yes Theory! ❤
Introducing: the one simple concept
As soon as I watched this video, I had to watch it AGAIN!!! And so far I have watched it every day at least once (yep, it’s that amazing, I am hooked!). The message is simple, yet so clear:
SEEK DISCOMFORT!
Let’s be honest here. We ALL have our very own fears and insecurities. Watching the four guys in the video embark on a journey together to explore the unknown and overcoming their fears together, supporting each other and being empathetic while actually enjoying the ride, embracing their oddities and celebrating their achievements was overwhelming to me. In my opinion the most important part of the video are the last 2 questions:
- What makes you uncomfortable?
- What are you going to do about it?
We all have multiple answers to the first question, right? I know I have for sure. But the second question was the actual game changer. After watching the guys crush their fears and grow confident over the course of the experiment I understood this simple concept: If I know what makes me feel uncomfortable, I am the one who is able to change that — not by reading about it but by actually taking ACTION! I suddenly felt so energised!
It is therefore the fastest way of growing confidence and overcoming any kind of insecurities, no matter how little the action is! And with the Those That Inspire community that is exactly what we are doing now — we started with a 90 day content challenge — supporting each other to take small action steps to get out of our comfort zone and accelerate growth. Who knows what’s next and how much more we can achieve, if all of us take action together?!
What has changed?
The mindset shift has been so empowering. Now, whenever I feel afraid or uncomfortable, I actually lean into that fear and acknowledge it. Instead of hiding it and letting it quietly roam inside of me, I actually take a closer look — and then I firmly decide what to do about it.
What used to feel intimidating, now feels liberating! I am in charge of whatever is happening in my life, of how I am interacting with people, of creating a life full of HAPPINESS… and so are you! So I ask you today:
What are you going to do with that?
