Food for thought.

Logic will get you from point A to B but imagination will take you everywhere-Albert Einstein.




When I was about 6 or 7 years, I picked up the habit of biting my nails. The reason, Wairimu (my best friend) had the cutest short nails I’d ever seen as a result of the habit. I wasn’t going to be left behind. Like any new habit, it took a while to stick. It did get painful at times when I attempted to take the nail to a new low, but I was determined. However with time the ‘new low’ became the standard and it wasn’t painful anymore. I did manage to bite off most of my nails to about 2cm from the root. It was painful of course in the beginning but this went away with time. I did eventually manage to get short nails (though not as cute as Wairimu’s)



Now, leaving our comfort zone is pretty much like biting nails. If we attempt to leave what we consider normal and test new waters, resistance is the first response. It becomes a battle of logic over passion, with logic having an upper hand. We are after all conditioned to live in order and avoid chaos. The mind has over time become wired to do things in a particular way such that when we decide to take a different path it ends up in total chaos. The most natural reaction to the chaos then becomes to quit the new path and stick to the old. However if circumstances are to change from the old to the new we have to allow ourselves to fill the pain and move on in spite of it. Achieving the extraordinary requires one to abandon the ordinary and fly with the eagles.



Like a new pair of shoes a new mindset is uncomfortable but with time it moulds itself into the core system that drives us- the mind. What we once perceived as new and unfamiliar becomes the norm. After all what we now consider possible, once existed in the realm of the impossible until someone somewhere decided to change that. Like biting nails you start off with baby steps, a bite a day. It becomes easier to focus on the immediate obstacles and tackle those, other than focusing on the long-term ones that are yet to even materialise. Focusing on a hundred tomorrows before you even get started, is most likely break even the strongest of wills. Overcoming the initial obstacles-breaking out of the cocoon- provides momentum to face bigger challenges.



When a river leaves its source it has to establish a course, if it’s to carry its waters beyond its point of origin. Its burrows gorges into rocks, carries away boulders and displaces soil- anything to set its flow in motion. When a course is finally established the water flows freely without much resistance to its destination. There will be of course the occasionally boulder that sets itself firmly on the river’s path. Depending on the magnitude of the rock the river will carry it away, break it down and move on along or find a way around it. Choosing a different path other than our comfort zone is pretty much alike. Filled with resistance at the beginning; but accompanied by much fruit when we persevere. The resistance we face at the beginning can either shape us or break us, it all comes down to choices. Of course it helps to know when to quit and when to try just a little bit harder.

Like Helen Keller once said, “We can do anything we want as long as we stick at it long enough.” If it burns with enough desire in you, it is worth the short term pain it causes.