It's Day 5 of the Your Turn Challenge, and the optional daily question is:
What advice would you give for getting unstuck?
I've heard this term "unstuck" a lot lately. It's either a trendy word or it's that reticular activator thing.
You feel stuck. You'd like to travel the world but you just can't get out of the situation you're in.
Everywhere you turn, you encounter another obstacle that makes it feel like you can't move.
-Your lack of vacation time
-Your fear of flying
-Your fear of getting lost, robbed, or just looking like a fool
-The 50 pound cat your mother gave you
You keep turning, and you'll keep encountering obstacles. You know there's probably a solution to each obstacle, but thinking about that hits a little too close to the truth: the obstacles are excuses.
There are two obstacles that are probably really at play:
1. No one in your circle of friends travels the way you want to travel. So you don't know what it looks like, feels like, or smells like. You have no reference and you'll have no real support.
2. You aren't willing to sacrifice what you need to give to take the trip: the difficult conversation with your boss, the time to attend the hypnosis sessions to beat your fear of flying, or the guilt and/or worry that comes with letting a stranger cat-sit.
If you have travel dreams and you feel stuck at home, know this: travel does require a degree of discomfort. Not just when you're on the road (or in the sky), but when you're interviewing strangers to look after your overweight cat, or when you are mispronouncing words in a foreign language.
So don't go. Don't do it. It's too hard. It's going to exhaust you, stretch you, and test you.
What? That's what you want? You want to get out of your comfort zone?
In that case, getting unstuck is simple. Take one step forward, even if it's a little scary and uncomfortable. Just one. And then the next.
Then bring back your courage as a souvenir. Share it with your friends. Travel - and growth - is contagious.