The Choice at a Crossroads

When you come to a crossroads, do you pick the path that will force your growth or the one that keeps you comfortable?

Are you even able to recognize it when you do come to a crossroads?

We face choices in our life everyday. It wouldn’t be far off to say that the fate of our lives is entirely based off the choices we make. So imagine the power we have to control which road we choose particularly when we know where each road will lead us.

Here’s a story:

In 2011, I got my motorcycle license. I took the class on a little Rebel 250 (picture a teenager on one of those small electric four wheelers from Walmart), and decided to continue on the Rebel afterward until I was comfortable enough to get on something bigger.

One day, I was practicing on the backroads near our house puttin’ along up and down but pretty much afraid to go any further than that.

When I got back to the house, I told my stepdad and best friend Mike that I was doing pretty good to which he responded “show me”. Mike had a massive Honda 1800 that was truly powerful. He hopped on it and we started down the street.

At the end of the road was a stop sign, and beyond that was a very busy main road. I turned to Mike and said “Yeah, I’m good, that was good enough”.

Mike was basically like, don’t be a baby, and before I knew it he had left me stranded at the stop sign. At this point, I had two decisions:

1️⃣ Turn around and go home or

2️⃣ Leave comfort behind and pull out onto the road.

I sat there for a good 5-10 mins contemplating my next decision.

And sweating.

Profusely.

My heart was racing and I didn’t know what to expect, but in spite of that I pulled out onto the road. I caught up to Mike and we ended up riding all over town for hours.

The next thing I knew I was upgrading to a Honda Shadow 750 nicknamed the Lone Wolf and I’ve had some of the best moments of my life riding that iron beast.

All because I chose growth over comfort.

The Takeaway:

Next time you come to a crossroads, choose growth.

Here are some tools to help:

1. Recognize you have a choice. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are at a crossroads, we don’t even see the stop sign. Listen to your gut when it tells you to stop and think for a second, it might actually be saying you have a choice to make.

2. Learn to love the fear. Everyone says “be afraid and do it anyway”, but it’s easier said than done. If we can learn to love the feeling of fear and think of what may feel like anxiety as excitement instead, appreciating that we get to “feel” at all, we can have the upper hand on doing uncomfortable things.

3. Who will push you off the cliff? Surround yourself with people who won’t hesitate to push you up to and past your limits. It is hard enough to choose growth, but to choose growth alone is even harder. Have a well-picked tribe that will give you the extra oomph to leave the stop sign behind.

Doing scary things is a great privilege in life, some people don’t get the chance to even pull up to a crossroads. So when we get the opportunity to pick our path, choose wisely.

Choose growth.

Be sweaty, heart racing, blood pumping, anxiety creeping -

but still choose growth.

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