I find the biggest thing that holds people back from experiencing success in their lives is an inability to manage their fear. Rather than overcoming their fear they just get stuck.
For example, I’ve met people who have a great business idea. I mean GREAT business ideas that, if lived into a reality, would transform their lives. I’ll challenge them to take the first step and what happens? Nothing. Why? Fear. Sure, they’ll toss up reasons but the real one is that they are afraid to get started because they are afraid of what that new opportunity might do to their lives.
In my years in youth ministry I often (emphasis on OFTEN) ran into youth workers who felt stuck in their ministry roles, weren’t sure youth ministry was for them any more, and wanted to do something new. But they stubbornly stay in youth ministry too long. Why? Fear. They were willing to do a job they’ve outgrown or are no longer interested in for fear of taking the risk to do something else.
To Grow You Need Change
In life you seem hit a series of plateaus. You grow, things flatten out, and you start to feel like there’s no more growth to be had. But that’s not true. There’s always room for growth.
Plateau’s aren’t bad. Let’s say you’re hiking all day. You can’t just go up all the time or you’ll get tired. (At least I can’t, I’m fat.) Sometimes you need to go up the hill a while, then a plateau is useful because it gives you the chance to catch your breath, gain perspective, rest up. But to get to the top you’ve got to push up the next big hill, right?
It’s the same in your life. Sometimes you hit plateaus and growth stalls out a little. That’s OK, sometimes it is OK to rest a bit. You can even stay there a long time. But when you want to grow you know you’re in for an uphill growth curve to get to the next spot.
Principle: What you know got you here. To get to the next step you need to grow.
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