Someone once told me- reach for the stars but keep your feet on the ground. This has always struck me as being very good advice because it means you have to streeeeetch.
I have been thinking about stretching in a more literal sense lately, particularly as I've started running again and muscles I didn't know existed have started to painfully make their presence felt.
Stretching in a metaphorical sense, however, is more important than ever. When you do this, you automatically set yourself up to go further. It means you never settle. It means you run along the edges of your comfort zone until your find the door marked 'Exit', and then push it open. Yes, the door will be alarmed and so will you be, at first. But when you are through it you find that this new place, although strange and scary, will soon be your comfort zone too. And so on and on you must go, never stopping, because there will always be another door, another challenge, another part of you waiting to be stretched.
When something feels like failure, it very rarely is, because as clichéd as it sounds, it has taught you something new and is therefore in fact a victory you would never otherwise have experienced. By stretching, you've changed a part of yourself permanently, even if it's so little that you can barely notice it yourself. Very few things return to their original state once they've been stretched hard enough.
Never let fear hold you back; use it instead as a flaming torch when you're running through the dark forests of doubt and despair. Fear can be good; it can be your friend. If you never have that crazy, lurching, gut-churning feeling that people euphemistically describe as butterflies in your stomach, it means you haven't walked through that door with the big red X on it yet. So go on, gently push it open or kick it down. Whatever works for you. Everyone, without exception, is capable of more than they think. Push the boundaries, embrace the challenge, conquer the fear. And stretch.
I have been thinking about stretching in a more literal sense lately, particularly as I've started running again and muscles I didn't know existed have started to painfully make their presence felt.
Stretching in a metaphorical sense, however, is more important than ever. When you do this, you automatically set yourself up to go further. It means you never settle. It means you run along the edges of your comfort zone until your find the door marked 'Exit', and then push it open. Yes, the door will be alarmed and so will you be, at first. But when you are through it you find that this new place, although strange and scary, will soon be your comfort zone too. And so on and on you must go, never stopping, because there will always be another door, another challenge, another part of you waiting to be stretched.
When something feels like failure, it very rarely is, because as clichéd as it sounds, it has taught you something new and is therefore in fact a victory you would never otherwise have experienced. By stretching, you've changed a part of yourself permanently, even if it's so little that you can barely notice it yourself. Very few things return to their original state once they've been stretched hard enough.
Never let fear hold you back; use it instead as a flaming torch when you're running through the dark forests of doubt and despair. Fear can be good; it can be your friend. If you never have that crazy, lurching, gut-churning feeling that people euphemistically describe as butterflies in your stomach, it means you haven't walked through that door with the big red X on it yet. So go on, gently push it open or kick it down. Whatever works for you. Everyone, without exception, is capable of more than they think. Push the boundaries, embrace the challenge, conquer the fear. And stretch.
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