Learning to evolve naturally

Over the last weeks, I mentioned the vision we all have for ourselves, a deeply personal vision of all we can be. This vision is not a constructed idea of all that we think we should be, do and have, it rather is growing despite of it.
I believe we are governed by an evolutionary principle that is creating and organizing life. We are not only governed by it, we are part of it, all of us, allowing it to create and evolve through us. Our vision is our personal interpretation of this universal principle, it is where our personality and the evolutionary principle meet. Allowing this vision to unfold freely allows life to evolve abundantly. For life to unfold through us unhinderedly, we need to let go of all that is holding us from living a great life.

In the age we live in, we equal a great life with a grandiose life and we feel like we need to take giant steps to get there. In our quest for this grandiose life, we are tempted to believe that growth only happens when we push ourselves. Yet in most of us, this idea creates such resistance that we just don’t do it. It simply feels too big. As a result, most of us feel like we’re falling short, like we’re not measuring up. I tell you, this is not true. We all do the best we can. Everyone of us is exactly where he or she needs to be. You are perfect as you are, and to grow into the vision of all that you are, you don’t need to push yourself to the limit. Growth is natural, it can be optimized, not forced. The same is true for letting go. They go hand in hand. In nature, this is beautifully illustrated by the snake shedding its skin when it has outgrown it. The snake slides forward inch by inch, and in moving forward it lets go of its old skin. Life is inviting us to move forward, to evolve. Evolution is a gradual process. When we gradually move forward, we automatically leave behind the things that don’t serve us anymore. Living our vision doesn’t mean that we are living the end result, because there is no fixed end. Like life, our vision is ever-evolving. Living our vision means living towards our vision, shifting our self-image as we go.

We all have a bandwidth in which we navigate with relative ease. The middle matches exactly with our current self-image, it is where we feel most comfortable. At the bottom is the self-image we are shedding and at the top is the self-image we are growing into. Both outer ends are pulling at us, the lower because it is what we know best, and the upper because of the promise it holds. Yet both feel uncomfortable, the bottom because it doesn’t fit anymore and the top because we aren’t ready yet to show our new colors.
Living our vision is leaning into the upper half of our bandwidth, only just above the middle. By that I mean either finding the best feeling thought you have access to and focusing on it until it feels so real that you start acting from it. Or if you prefer the process to be the other way around, practicing a slightly improved habit until it feels natural. This way, without you truly realizing it, the image you have of yourself is evolving in the direction of your dreams. It is an inch by inch process, but if done consistently your new self-image starts showing and the old starts coming off.  And then one day, without forcing anything, your old ‘skin’ is gone and you realize you have completely grown into the self-image your heart had envisioned for you. This new you feels natural and logical.  And because your heart follows the same evolutionary principle, new dreams are ligned up for you and the process continues. For this is true, there is no limit.

Photo by Thomas Picard