It’s October and here in Alaska we are deep into fall already. The leaves are a gorgeous yellow-gold, the days have been misty and the views spectacular as I look down into the Eagle River Valley. With fall really settling in, I am grateful to slowly be finding a new rhythm and it has me reflecting.
In this stage of transition I realized that all of us are (consciously or not) trying desperately to avoid the potholes. But, we aren’t succeeding. The potholes are still there and seem to be part of this journey, despite our best intentions.
The bumps keep finding us.
As I was working with a client this week, it became abundantly clear that I was feeling responsible for removing all the potholes for my clients too. I don’t like them having to go through the discomfort of changing their diet any more than they do. But, as it hit me in the face within our own family, it also did with this client.
I can’t take away the potholes.
Those potholes are part of this journey. If we don’t go through the potholes, how will we ever learn to dodge them the next time? The discomfort is part of the growth that has to happen. If we don’t have discomfort we don’t get the growth and the transformation we wish to have.
The way is always through.
It’s a hard lesson sometimes, and often one we have to learn on repeat. But, when we are working to create change to create something better for ourselves, we have to go through the discomfort. It doesn’t mean we are doing it wrong, or we aren’t cut out for it, or we can’t.
It actually means we are doing it exactly right.