“I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.” —Oprah Winfrey
Happy Mother’s Day to all those remarkable mothers out there! The most amazing teachers we have.
One part of parenthood my wife and I continue challenging ourselves is navigating the balance of wanting to protect our kids vs. letting them have life experiences. Life experiences that we know will come with pieces of failure, struggle, sadness.
Being a teacher in life comes with this battle of letting go to let life lessons take their course vs. protection mode setting in. Do we tell them the answer to the math question or let them work through a couple times of failure before learning? Do we coach them on every detail on how to swing and hit the baseball/softball or let them feel it out and try different approaches? While there’s certainly benefit from guidance and coaching, teaching allows space for them to also learn their own path forward.
Thinking about our own personal growth, it’s common to have a similar battle of protection (staying comfortable) vs. seeking life challenges ahead. Challenges we know inevitably will contain failures and mistakes along the way but will pave the way for growth and success.
Staying in the comfortable zone creates an easier path forward but puts a ceiling on growth. The mindset of letting go of the fear of failure to invite in life experiences sets a path forward of progress. The mind flips from focusing on the failure as a negative to that failure becoming an insight to how growth can continue to manifest.
We must let go of the protective nature our mind sets in place and be willing to take on failures to uncover what we can become.
Take your step: invest time this week to reflect on an area of your life you’re working to improve on. Create space and give yourself the openness to challenge yourself with the question, am I seeking protection or am I seeking challenge for growth? Identify areas where the mindset may need work to shift from one of comfort to one willing to seek more challenges for continued growth.