Why is it necessary to be placed in a box in order to grow? What is our purpose?
We ask this question on a regular basis throughout life. We get it during from our guidance counselors in High School, our pastors lecture this home in message and as we age we constantly chase the purpose of our existence through hobbies, work, relationships and friendships.
I reflect back to my puppy’s youth. I remember when Beamer, a King Charles spaniel, was about 4 months old and my girlfriend and I were invited to one of my client’s home for a “King Charles Swim Party.” Yeah, you read that correctly. Not knowing what we were getting into at the time we agreed to brining Beamer to the party. As we arrived and got Beamer our of the car, he was excited, vibrant and care free exploring all the new layout of land, even marking his territory, as to let the other neighborhood dogs know he has arrived , as we entered towards the gate to the swim party. Once we got to the gate, Beamer was prepared to enter into this new neighborhood with ferocious purpose attempting to pull away from his collar and leash; however he was hit with the reality of our world quickly. As the gate swung open, 12 grown King Charles spaniel’s cornered Beamer (Let me take one moment to remind you that King Charles spaniel’s are only about 18-22 lbs fully grown). Beamer was immediately boxed into the corner and being only 4 months old and roughly 6 lbs, that new king of the neighborhood swim party was welcomed to noise, chaos and discomfort unlike he had ever seen. Boxed in, all he did was curl-up, shake, whimper and whine with fear. I, feeling guilty allowed him to suffer briefly and the I picked him and Michelle and I rescued him from the onslaught of finding purpose in the world and being denied or set back.
As I reminisce about this specific event, life, progress and our search for purpose and growth I believe that we all need to be placed in a box, cornered and forced to grow, develop, transform and transcend from youth to adult. That box, those corners either become dead ends, no exits, scars and sufferings that lead to perseverance, character, and opportunity and growth or you end of repainting those walls and repeating the same mistakes.
1. Postion Yourself: When place in the corner of circumstance and situation, pick a high quality paint to redo those walls. You can get paint at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart or Sherwin Williams. Wisdom from others is the key and it depends on what you want to invest in as they each will provide a different color, shade, shine but only one is free.
2. Educate Yourself: Learn from others, lear form books, learn from hands on experience, learn knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
Knowledge- receiving information
Understanding- interpretation of information
Wisdom- application of information
3. Discover Yourself- Being boxed in as a puppy and forced to the constraints of chaos and noise, is different and will be different as we age. The King Charles spaniel will eventually turn into a Pit-bull when cornered and boxed. Just prepare yourself for that moment to fight back or walk through those doors of opportunity as you discover purpose and growth.
4. Finally, choose comfort or fear- They say lfe only begins when you get ouf of your comfort zone. As I believe this. As beamer went from beign submissive and cornered into barking and growling at every dog at Petsmart during his recent haircut. A far cry from the whicmpering. Who said we couldn’t learn a thing or two from dogs. Or even take Eazy E’s take on Fear:
“Fear is a very powerful thing. IF we can find a way to harness it and instead of allowing it to be in front of us, put it behind us and allow it to push us forward.”
From the beginning the choices for growth from youth to adult, risk to reward, failure to success when we are box and cornered lie in our reponse. Lie in the choice of paint. Lie in the choice of our positioning. Lie in the choice of our education. Lie in the choice of our discovery. Lie in the choice of our comfort or fear. Lie in the choice of crawling on our knees or walking out on our feet.
~Jesse
