Limiting

Stepping outside your story will be uncomfortable.

Any time you decide to push on the edges of your story, your voices will start to work overtime to keep you inline. To put you back into your ‘comfort zone.’

Staying inside your comfort zone will only limit your experience of life. It’s safe and comfortable, but it's limiting.

In order for you to step outside your story you have to push on the edges of your comfort zone. When you do this, your ego will not like it. It will aggressively signal you to move back to what it knows.

For example, if you learned early in life that ‘what you say doesn’t matter', then you probably don't speak up and say what’s on your mind because your 'story' tells you - it won't matter. If you're a member of a team at work and you don’t speak up because you don’t think what you say matters, then this kind of behavior could have a significant limiting impact on your career.

If do you summon the courage to speak up you'll feel scared and uncomfortable. This is your ego reminding you to go back to what you know.

Staying inside your story limits who you are.

Simplicity on the Other Side of Complexity

"I wouldn't give a nickel for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."

I read this complex yet simple quote (versions of which are attributed to both Einstein and Oliver Wendell Holmes), initially nodded in assent but almost missed its point.

I found myself grinding down into the deeper meaning, occasionally losing my bearings, both amused and inspired at how a passage can trigger such discovery. Getting stuck on my own treadmill of thought is frustrating, but seeing the patterns to break free from that hold is a worthy reward.

Then it hit me. That’s how you get to the other side of complexity: go down and in, inquire with curiosity, work through the muck until you appreciate the pattern or trend behind the complexity, and finally, come out on the other side. It’s non-linear; rather, it’s more of a U-shape curve.

I have not found a simple solution. It’s learning the hard way. I suppose Einstein and Holmes understood that.