Uncomfortable

At the beginning of any new venture, project, unprecedented experience, or trip to a new land, I find myself feeling uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I hesitate moving forward, consider not doing it at all, or worse even, turning back. It's strange because I have always said that I love beginnings, it's endings that I am not fond of. I am a perfectionist (or so I've been told), and want to be good at everything that I do. I want to do everything right and when it comes time to embark on something that is brand new to me, the risk of making a mistake is sometimes unbearable.

If we don't try new things or welcome these brand new experiences, in spite of the onset of discomfort, we will not enjoy the fruits of growth. But don't take it from me, take it from some wiser souls than I:

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
- Alan Cohen

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
- Anias Nin

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
-Charles Dubois

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
- Epictetus

Coincidences

There are a few books that I like to revisit from time to time. The Celestine Prophecy is one of them. This book is a first-person narrative of the narrator's spiritual awakening as he goes through a transitional period of his life. During his journey, he begins to notice instances of synchronicity, which is the realization that coincidences may have deep meaning. And along the way he uncovers eleven insights to his enlightenment. Today I found myself thinking about his seventh insight.

The Seventh Insight: Engaging the Flow
In pursuit of our personal mission, we can discover an inner intuition that shows us where to go and what to do, and if we make only positive interpretations, brings a flow of coincidences that opens the doors for our mission to unfold. First we have a question; then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions that lead us towards the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.