“If you are comfortable lying in bed, it is cozy and warm, plush and easy do you ever want to get up and out? When comfortable it is just that easy to stay as is. What is comfort? For some it is as just described. Everything is wonderful and easy, and warm and good.

Welcome to Part 19 of The Secret To Success And Happiness Few Know And Won’t Tell You. The series continues. Hope you are enjoying it. Feel free to comment.  Part 20 tomorrow. Let’s go!

For others it is the familiar. It is the known. It is sameness from moment to moment. Conditions do not vary much. It is reliable and secure. For some it is a place for everything and everything in its place. For some it means the absences of unpleasantness.

Stretch Yourself Beyond What You Know

Most personal development never occurs inside our comfort zone. It seems to mostly only occur when we willingly or are forced to leave or abandon it. Why? I’d say by the description of comfort itself it should be obvious. Learning life lessons seem to come by trials.

It may be that it doesn’t have to be this way but since it seems to operate this way most frequently it seems one should accept it and embrace it. Opportunity when it presents itself, presents itself as it is. We may not get to change how and when and what it comes as.

Embrace change. Embrace hardship. Embrace struggle. Embrace challenge. What? Why? you exclaim. Because when you do you take the sting out of it. It may not be any less difficult but you can wrap your mind around it. If you don’t care it is hard, then it isn’t really.

Stretch Yourself Beyond What You Think Is Possible

It is our struggles against struggles that magnify them. It is the resistance we put up and the fight that prolongs them. I am not saying give up I am suggesting giving in. Go with the flow, when they arise. Don’t dam up the energy. Allow, let go and move on.

I am not suggesting you don’t solve problems or overcome your difficulties. I am suggesting you don’t make an issue of them.  Energy flows where you attention goes. Focus on what can be done, focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want or why things exist.

Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, ‘A mind stretched to a new idea can never go back to its original dimension.’ This is very positive news. Once stretched you go further than you would have without being stretched. But stretched implies some pull, some difficulty.

Recognize Your Limits Then Go Beyond Them

To change we must stretch and go beyond what is comfortable. We must get out of our comfort zone. We must leave the known and venture into the unknown. When we do we encounter new experiences and new ways to think and behave. These change us.

This may be why so many people experience massive breakthroughs when finally their back is against the wall. They have no options. Everything is lost or about to be. Once in the gutter their is no way out but up. When all is lost they find their true self and resources.

When everything is stretched to the maximum change occurs. We surpass limitations and boundaries that truly only exist in the mind. Our only limitations are the ones we think we have. Once we are aware and go beyond our limitations anything becomes possible.

A Good Goal Should Be A Stretch For You To Reach It

Focus on solutions. Focus on what you have that you are grateful for. Focus on what you want to create that is better. Transformation can occur in an instant. Like the enlightenment paradox. It can take years of practice to transform in a moment.

However, without the years of dedication that moment would not likely present itself. In other words, plan for a miracle! Expect good things to happen. Seek and you will find them is how the brain works. So look for what is good and what you want more of. Yes!

Some things you can learn in only a few moments but take a life time to master. To get really good in any endeavor requires, time, devoted energy, practice and commitment. If you want your life to change in incredible ways for the best commit to practicing basics.

Go Beyond The Known – Go Beyond Yourself

You don’t have to stay out of your comfort zone all the time. That would be too much all at once. That is what happens when people have their backs against the wall. Instead, practice a little daily vacation from your comfort zone to reap great rewards.

A little goes a long way. Stretch, push your boundaries bit by bit. Remember, drop by drop fills the tub. A little bit can bring about dynamic change, especially when you do a little bit consistently. Less is more. Especially, if that helps you stick with it! Take charge!

Read some positive motivational material each day. A chapter, a page, a paragraph, a line whatever you can manage but commit to it. Your mind will be awakened to new possibility and insights. Obviously, more may be better but do what you can. Stretch!

A Little Bit Goes A Long Way

Use affirmations and Directed Questions™ frequently throughout the day with strong, positive emotion. Direct your mind positively and powerfully to stay on track. Manage your self-talk and what you say to others. Only speak to bless, heal and prosper.

Visualize what you want as if you already have it. Feel the marvelous feelings. Do this once of twice a day for a few minutes but actually do it. If you always do what you always did you always get what you always got. If you want to change you have to change things up.

You must do different things! Pay attention to feeling good and make it a point to feel as best you can each moment. If negative feelings arise notice what you are thinking. Take it as signal to become aware of and change your thoughts. It’s a signal. Use it.

If You Don’t Truly Want It – You’ll Come Up With Excuses

Encourage yourself to feel a bit better whenever down. You don’t have to leap into bliss but nudge yourself towards feeling a bit better instead of wallowing. In doing this you set directions to travel in. You begin to move out of pain and into more positive feelings.

It is up to each of us to initiate our own movement and development. It gets easier the more often we do it. We learn to take charge of our own evolution. When hard times occur, and they will, we are better prepared through daily, regular, practice. Master these basics.

Leave your comfort zone. Stretch yourself. Guess what? Stretching yourself will become more comfortable too. Everything gets easier, and you get better at it,  through devoted practice. Be willing to stretch yourself to a new idea and a new way of being! Enjoy it.

If You Truly Want It – You Will Find A Way To Make It Happen

I emphasize gratitude and appreciation for whatever is right now. Good or not so good there is ALWAYS some good you can find in it. Why bother to look? Because you build within yourself a scanning mechanism, the ability to find good when very hidden.

That ability is a game changer! When you can find opportunity and good inside the very not so good your mind is much more under your control and working on you behalf to bring you good things. You move from stuck to unstuck so much more readily and easily.

New worlds open up for you. New thoughts, feelings, actions and results. It is exponential in nature and builds on itself. It begins to make all good, even when it isn’t, so you can do positive things about it. It is a life changer! Discover it for yourself if you haven’t.

Explore – Delight – Adventure – Celebrate 

Enjoy, delight, have fun. Don’t take changing too seriously. Stretch yourself. Try new things that bring you joy. Surprise and gift yourself. Allow life to be exquisite. Little moments can be delicious and are important as big ones. Celebrate everything!” Rex Sikes

Enjoy another marvelous day!

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Horizons photo used with permission of Phil Koch.

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