Growing into the next level of yourself is uncomfortable and awkward, like being a teenager. There is an innocence and hope as well and that’s what makes it bearable.
01:30 Most of us have growth phases that are more sporadic as we become adults, but the similarity in how we feel in a growth phase is similar to what we feel like as teenagers.
02:00 As we grow, we recognize that we want to join a new “in-group” of people but we all have the fear of not belonging there or being welcomed.
02:30 As we attempt to enact what we are growing into, there is always the pain of failure and not matching our own inflated expectation of how it was supposed to be.
03:50 Leveling up in my life lately has felt a bit like when I tripped up the stairs in high school and chose to pretend I wasn’t bleeding through my jeans to avoid being noticed as I limped to class.
04:00 The question on my mind was, “Who is next-level Blaze and how do I become that?”
05:00 I have learned not to ask myself so much what I want to do, but to ask how do I want to feel, and work from there.
05:20 I don’t believe that accomplishing a lot of things means success anymore. Now I believe it is feeling how I want to feel more of the time.
06:00 Looking at my list I asked, why haven’t I started it yet, and what would it feel like if I did that?
07:00 Accomplishing anything on my list will not change the way I feel right now. And it might not even change the way I feel after I do them.
07:20 A better question is, “What do I need to be feeling right now to make doing those things possible?”
08:10 Last time I cut sugar from my diet I used money as my motivator and invested in a program to help me get over the hump because willpower alone couldn’t do it for me.
08:55 Just like when we’re teenagers, we can’t see how far we’ve come and how different we are while we are in the awkward stages of growth. But it’s happening, all the same.
09:00 In any endeavor we face a challenging moment. In my quest to end sugar, my hurdle was eating cookies this week and delusionally thinking they wouldn’t taste good. But they did, and I ate many.
11:50 How close or far do you feel from achieving the items on your next-level list?
12:00 Doing these things won’t change who you are but you might feel scared. It won’t change you fundamentally to join the PTO, Blaze!
14:45 It’s not so hard to keep going if you make only one simple decision and the next thing you have to do is just show up and it’s ok to feel any way you feel about it.
15:00 Starting all the things on my next-level list made me realize that not only was it possible for it to happen, but it didn’t have to look any particular way.
15:50 Sometimes becoming next-level you just looks like living your life.
16:50 I used to think a plateau meant stagnation or nothing is happening, but now I see that plateaus are these awesome periods of practice and integration and worthy of lots of appreciation.
Your donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks for listening!
