As I walked into my hotel shower last night, I felt a burn from the seemingly boiling water. However, the temp was set the same as the beautiful shower I had earlier that day. Why the different reaction? Earlier in the day, I had increased the heat gradually. Ahhhhh!
This led me to two thoughts:
i) If you put yourself in too much heat too fast, you will burn. However, by gradually increasing the heat (difficulty), you can bare more and more as you become comfortable at each stage.
ii) A lobster who is in a pan of water that gradually increases in heat will be in boiling water before he knows it. And that doesn’t end well for the lobster!
Life is about increasing the heat that you can bare. It is about growth, progression, and development. So what can we do to make sure that we are able to increase the heat that stretches us, without becoming like the lobster that suffers a fate he was blind to?
1) Reflect on where you are right now.
Be constantly curious about your current state and situation. Are you in water that you can handle? Are you learning anything in this water or are you just in a state of ease and comfort? Do you actually want to be in this water?
2) Ask critical questions about your next steps.
If you’re the lobster, you can’t exactly ask anyone else how you can get out the pan, but you’re not a lobster so you have the ability to seek the help of people who can help you out of your current state into an even better one. You can also question yourself. Are you ready to increase the heat? How could you do it? To what level? What support do you need? What can you do to prepare for the extra heat?
3) Embrace the heat.
If you’ve decided that this pan is going to develop you instead of boiling you like a lobster, and you have been strategic in your planning and approach, it’s now time to know that the heat you’re facing / about to face will be great for you. Stagnation equals boredom and a lack of fulfilment. Embrace the heat, increase your threshold, and make the jump between where you are now and where you want to be.
Darren Cheesman 