I was sitting alone at home on a bench last Sunday evening listening to the kids’ next door (well, the plan was to listen to myself) as they were shouting their lungs out in endless bouts of excitement and laughter. I started thinking about how fun and carefree it was being a child, which started me on a trip down memory lane.
In this unbelievably long trip (if I say so myself), I realised that as fun as my childhood was, it prepared me for adulthood in the most remarkable ways. I wondered if our parents knew that the smallest things would wind up as lessons for us as grownups and help us push forward when the going got tough.
Here’s one such story I thought I share that I believe many can relate to (at least where I am from).
As a kid, from as far back as I can remember, when we got bought clothes for Christmas (yep, for Christmas), our parents would buy clothes that were slightly bigger (sometimes not so slightly) with the intent that we would in their words “grow into them”. So year after year, we would get a large this and an extra-large that, which we were to ‘grow into.’
And you know what? We eventually did. WE GREW INTO THEM.
What our parents were sure of is that as time passed and seasons changed, we would grow, and in time, that baggy pair of pants would fit and that odd-looking dress would snuggle perfectly. And so they continued with this pattern right until past our teen years.
What I gathered from this trail of thought is that many of us hold on to parts of ourselves because we are waiting for the right time for us to share these parts with the world. We hold on to our talents, our ideas, our plans and our dreams.
The truth is, there is no right time to wear your dreams. You grow into them.
To humour myself, I looked up the definition of ‘growing into something’. And here’s what I found-
‘To grow into something/someone means to develop and become a particular thing or person’- from somewhere on Google.
So here is the bottom line. We are constantly evolving into something different from what we are today. This means that what we are today will not be what we are tomorrow.
What precisely does this mean?
It means that whatever you carry within yourself today is significant this very day because tomorrow you will be different. So why not act on your ideas, plans and dreams TODAY? As frightening or impossible as that may seem, you WILL surely grow into them just like you did your clothes.
Nature has balance. Thus if you grow physically, then it must be true that you also grow in many other intrinsic ways, right? This growth is eminent in the harsh experiences that we go through- the losses, the hardships and challenges- those are all meant to grow us.
So here’s a new motto- If the shoe does not fit today, you will grow into it.
Therefore I dare you to act today.
Act on that idea.
Execute that plan.
Start living that dream.
What does it take you might ask?
It takes only one decision. A decision that whatever it is you start today, you will grow into it.
Hi. I am Shaka, and I am a Transformational Life Coach.
And I DARE YOU TO CHANGE YOUR INNER GAME. I DARE YOU TO EMERGE.
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