Lobsters have discovered the secret to life.
Stay with me here.
Lobsters are a soft, mushy animal that live inside a rigid shell. As the lobster grows, the shell doesn’t expand. It becomes so cramped and uncomfortable that the lobster crawls under the rocks, away from predators. There, it casts off its old shell and slips into a larger one.
Over the course of their life, lobsters repeat this maneuver many times. Whenever it feels too confined, it sheds its old shell and finds a new one. So, it’s discomfort that drives lobsters to grow and expand.
It’s the same for us. Except when we feel pressured, doctors prescribe Valium. The more evolved lobster uses pain as their motivation to evolve. Without that discomfort, it would stay in its shell, its comfort zone.
Growth is never a smooth, upward glide. It comes in fits and starts. But if you’re willing to embrace change, those times of adversity can trigger tremendous growth.
Here’s my take. I’m taking my own advice and uprooting from our home in L.A. and moving to a new shell in Arizona. After a rugged 2020, we need less stress and more room to stretch out.
Sometimes it’s best to press the reset button. But how do you know when?
It depends on how confined your shell feels – and your guts to shed it. It takes courage to stand on a cliff, knowing you must make a change. But that’s what defines your character.
Or, as author Ray Bradbury advises, “When it’s time to make that leap of faith, sometimes you just have to jump – and grow wings on the way down.”