Stand In Your Discomfort With Comfort

A man on a weekend hike spotted a cocoon. Looking closely, he saw a small opening. He watched amazed as the butterfly struggled to force its body through hole and out of the cocoon. It seemed to be stuck.

So the man took his pocket knife and cut through the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily, but its body was swollen and its wings were shriveled. It was unable to fly.

In his kindness, the man did not realize that the butterfly’s struggle through the opening of the cocoon was nature’s way of forcing fluid from its body into its wings.

We may often wish for our business to go more smoothly and our lives to be easier. Sometimes the struggle and demands leave us feeling like a failure, and we can’t see that we’re making any progress at all.

But the times that are the most difficult are the times that give us our wings and help us eventually fly.

So if you are upset and frustrated by the struggles you’re going through, remember no one soars too high if they soars with their own wings.

Every discomfort is pushing us to the next level. It’s easier to live with comfort, no doubt, but the sign that something truly amazing is about to happen will always come when we cross the border out of our comfort zone.

Every mistake is teaching and helping us. Mistakes are not just inevitable but necessary; it’s the way we think about them that needs to change. Mistakes are the pathway for acquiring knowledge. When you make a mistake, tell yourself, “I did not have enough information and now I am acquiring more.”

Every failure gives us a chance to try again and work for meaning. We can only be truly successful after we have failed—and failed many times. Staying safely successful is the most dangerous thing of all.

Every miscalculation shows us how to calculate more accurately. So often we try to cover up miscalculations because we feel betrayed by our judgment. We say, “I should have known better!” But maybe we’re learning exactly what we need to learn, and we’re asking too much too soon of ourselves.

Before we can acquire the kind of success that brings more meaning and not just more wealth, we will struggle, miscalculate, misunderstand, and make many mistakes. All of this is necessary, all of this is normal, all of this is acceptable.

We all have to struggle and strive because there is far more to us than we can imagine. When life and business become too much, we must prepare ourselves to accept the struggles in order to obtain the wealth of meaning.

Lead From Within: How we manage our feelings and stay in charge in times of struggle will determine how we earn our wings.

N A T I O N A L   B E S T S E L L E R
The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness

After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.

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• A Leadership Manifesto: A Guide To Greatness
• How to Succeed as A New Leader
• 12 of The Most Common Lies Leaders Tell Themselves
• 4 Proven Reasons Why Intuitive Leaders Make Great Leaders
• The One Quality Every Leader Needs To Succeed
• The Deception Trap of Leadership

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