Growth or Death

During a discussion this week Sifu Maury said that "we are either growing mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually or dying mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually". This is quite a statement and I have been giving this much thought since then. I have to say that I agree with him, it makes sense. It came up because we were talking about setting goals in life, achievable long-term goals broken down into a series of short term goals that enable us to get there. It is important that goals are set in life and that they are written down to make us accountable. The reason why we need to set goals for ourselves is because if we don't have a conscious path of growth in our lives we are not growing and if we are not growing we are dying.

It makes sense to me yet I am struggling with it. My only goals right can't penetrate beyond the birth of Ethan in 3 weeks and hoping we can get through this happily and healthily. My goals for my massage business have really fallen apart and while I am training intensely in kung fu my focus is not on a specific goal but more on enjoying the daily challenges the training brings. I have no goals at work right now, I just want to stay employed in a turbulent industry in order to enable my family to live a comfortable life. The rest of my life is in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasures - just having as much fun as possible.

Setting goals should be straight forward, we think about where we want to be. Going through the goal-setting process right now though, I am finding it really tough. Maybe because my biggest goals involve so much life change which I don't want to face right now. I have an ideal job in mind which would mean the disruption and uncertainty around leaving my position and starting up elsewhere, I have a massage practice goal but that means a lot of time devoted to it and putting myself in situations outside my comfort zone to achieve this.

It is also easy to justify not starting down the path we know we need to take. I can't risk a job change right now with a child about to be born and I really won't have time to focus on my business. But after that when would I expect to have the time, when Ethan is 2?, 6?, 14?, 21? Vast numbers of people live their whole lives like this - I am unhappy now but I will do X once I get my promotion at work/get that big scratchcard win/after my elderly parent has passed away.

Is the alternative dying mentally?, physically?, emotionally?, spiritually?

Nick
Yellow sash