Do you choose safety or growth? – Podcast

Weekday Wisdom Archives - Carma Spence

Weekday Wisdom, Season 3, Episode 2

Which do you choose? Safety or growth?

In this episode of the Weekday Wisdom, I discuss the implications of Abraham Maslow’s quote:

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

Video Version

It is hard to step out of your safety zone, but it is required for growth. And it seems that Maslow is advocating for continuous, non-stop growth here.

But is he? Is it not OK to sometimes take a break and sit in your safety zone to catch a breath?

Watch any horror film. Are any of them non-stop, unrelenting terror? Of course not, the audience needs some downtime to recover from the last scare.

And so, sometimes not choosing growth is not necessarily letting fear have the upper hand.

However, you do need to be vigilant to fear’s power over your life. Ask yourself:

Are you taking a breather? Or are you letting fear get the better of you?

Sometimes that’s not an easy question to answer, but it is worth pondering.

I think that there is a middle road hidden within Maslow’s quote. Let’s hear it again:

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

Ah! Did you hear it? The key phrase here is “back toward safety.”

When you successfully push your envelope of fear, there is no need to go *back* toward safety. You’ve just created a new safe space!

So, when you’re taking a breather, you’re hanging out in that new safe space. You’re resting and recouping from that last push through fear. And that’s OK.

The question now becomes, are you going to stay where you are indefinitely? Or will you again choose growth, choose to push your envelope of fear and create a new, larger safety zone?

Audio Version

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