What If the Thing You Fear Is the Way Forward?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about resistance. Those things in life we quietly hope will just… go away. The conversation we don’t want to have. The situation we haven’t faced. The decision that feels uncomfortable. The unknown that makes us want to stay exactly where we are, thank you very much. I have a couple of things I am the Queen of Resistance for – and I have become curious, like an investigator as to why that is – no more self-shaming, just why? WHY? 😊 But I’m starting to believe that resistance isn’t always telling us STOP. Maybe sometimes it’s pointing directly at where we need to GO. It’s telling you to pull that thorn out of your foot – before it gets infected ……ewww.

There is a certain peace that comes when you stop fighting what life is putting in front of you and start getting curious about it instead. What is this here to teach me? What if I walked toward it instead of away from it? How can I problem solve this? Who might I become on the other side? That doesn’t mean we suddenly love the hard stuff. Let’s not get carried away! It means we begin to see fear differently. Fear doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. Sometimes fear means this is going to require courage. And courage, I’m discovering, can actually feel a lot like excitement when we allow ourselves to trust where we’re going.

I love the work of Bruce Lipton around the subconscious mind, belief and the programs we carry with us, and I recently heard him on the School of Greatness podcast with Lewis Howes. It made me think about how often we visualize the person we want to become — the life we want to live, how we want to feel, the freedom we want, the experiences we want to have — without knowing how on earth we’re going to get there. We repeat it. We meditate on it. We picture it. Eventually, somewhere deep inside, we begin to believe it. And then life starts giving us opportunities to become that person for real. The funny part is those opportunities don't always look like opportunities. Sometimes they look suspiciously like the exact thing we've been resisting.

And then one day you look around and realize…

Oh my goodness. This is it.

Pieces of the life you imagined are actually here. Not packaged the way you expected. Not delivered according to your carefully prepared timeline. But beautifully, strangely, perfectly ok. And perhaps that is what manifestation really asks of us. Not simply to imagine what we want, but to have the courage to grow into the person who can live it. We are accountable for that part. We choose what we believe, where we put our energy, and whether fear becomes our stop sign or our invitation.

So this week, I’m trying something different. When I feel resistance, I’m not immediately asking, How do I get away from this? I’m asking, What could be waiting for me if I move toward it with courage and excitement? There is something very peaceful about trusting that life is teaching us every single day. We don't have to know exactly how the story reads. We just have to keep becoming. Keep believing. Keep choosing courage over comfort and curiosity over fear. Because perhaps the life beyond anything we could have imagined isn't somewhere far off in the future. Perhaps we're becoming it right now.

Swerve toward it. You might be surprised by what's waiting there.

- Kim