Want to Grow? Look Beyond What You Know
There's so much there to find.
The temp read 101 degrees as I pulled into Ralph’s parking lot. It was a challenge as usual to find a parking spot which was further exasperated by the fact that I was hot and didn’t want to walk a mile to the door. So, again as usual, I trekked up and down the rows of parked cars watching for brake lights indicating someone was pulling out.
I turned down the last row, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a ramp. I have no idea why I had never noticed this any of the numerous times I’d been to this grocery store, but today it felt it had been put there just for me. It led to underground parking and as I drove down the ramp it was like finding a secret passage way. I found a spot right by the door so I whipped my Mini Cooper S into place.
I grabbed a cart and rode up the elevator next to a man with a beard and a twinkle in his eye that made me think of Merlin the magician, or a young Professor Dumbledore. I said, “This is the first time I’ve parked down here. It’s like a whole new world.” Without skipping a beat, he said, “a whole new world that’s a whole lot cooler.” Well said, Professor.
It got me thinking about what can happen when you look beyond what you already know, or think you know.
How often do you find yourself thinking something won't work because the thing you tried, failed to make it happen? Or a solution to a problem feels less than satisfactory, but it was the general consensus so it's what you go with? Or you've fallen into a habit or routine that used to work for you but it's lost it's power or value, however you keep doing it because it's what you've always done? Or you just can't figure it out so you quit? Or you can't find something, so you give up?
We've all done it. No judgment here. Heck I didn't even know there was underground parking at a shopping center I've been going to every week for almost two years!
But, what I experienced made me realize - or remember- that there's always another way. There's always something beyond what we already know. There's nearly always another way into it.
So... Want to grow? Look beyond what you know.
- Turn it upside down. Inside out.
- Take another entrance. Or exit.
- Stuck on an idea? Think about backwards. Say it backwards. There may be another way in.
- Backtrack from your end goal, which can sometimes reveal another way to get there.
- Get someone else's perspective; sometimes all it takes is another set of eyes.
- Be curious.
- Embrace mistakes; they can open up a new way of doing something.
- Stretch yourself beyond your own understanding.
- Look up and forward. And, then look behind you.
- Take a risk and trust the unknown.
Or simply ask, what else is there? What's beyond what I already know? Take a breath and allow the answer to reveal itself.
Then go there. You never know. Looking beyond what you know could lead to a secret passage way to exactly where you want to be.
"Unless you try to do something beyond what you've already mastered, you will never grow." Ralph Waldo Emerson
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