In reality, stagnation is not necessarily the safer alternative. If we carry on through life unhappy, unfulfilled and dissatisfied, then safety doesn’t sound all that attractive after all. The problem with stagnation is that by positioning ourselves squarely in our closed mindset, we prevent intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual growth. Stagnation can hinder progress, success, learning, growth, happiness and joy.
Stagnation is not risk free either. It is difficult to maintain close relationships, professional duties and even health if we choose to stagnate. How can a relationship be maintained when one partner is growing and one is not? How can a person find more enrichment in a professional capacity when no growth occurs? How can you enhance your health if you don’t stress the body to create changes at the cellular level? To make matters worse, the longer we stagnate, the more difficult it becomes to make forward progress.
Change
When we feel the need for change, we have sent a warning signal to our brains that we may need to open our mindset. As we search for the right steps to take, we investigate our behaviors, our beliefs and our values. With an open mindset, we can discover what may be holding us back from achieving our goals.
Allowing change into your life means letting go of the old habits and assumptions. This can create a sense of vulnerability and feeling exposed. This is why letting go is so difficult. Even if we can let go right away, many of us will take our old habits back again unless we continually nurture the process.
The benefit of change is growth. We can always learn more about ourselves, and the stress of change can push our growth to a higher level. While it can be tiresome and emotionally exhausting, many of us find the change process exhilarating. When the moments of “aha” occur, the whole mind shifts to new possibilities, and you feel light and energized.
There is a famous experiment where scientists tried to grow trees in a biosphere. Every time the trees reached a certain height, they would literally fall over. At first, the scientists were stumped until they realized a major missing component in the biosphere. Turns out they were missing wind. They learned that the force and stress of the wind on the tree trunks actually strengthened them, thereby allowing them to grow big and tall. Perhaps we are like trees where we need the daily stresses of change put on us to fully flourish.
Self Application
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Frederick Douglass