Can You Fill Up A Bucket If It Has Multiple Holes?

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Have you thought about why when we travel on an airplane, they always ask us to buckle up our seat-belts during takeoff and landing, but then the seat-belt lights go off during most of the flight? I’ve given that some thought during one of my recent trips by airplane, and I found out some interesting analogy between us buckling up our seat-belts on airplanes and our personal growth and development journey.

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Notice when do they ask us to buckle up our seat-belts. It's when the plane is taking off. Why is that? Because of the turbulence and strong air resistance while the engines are reaching their full power. So, when you're going through some changes in your life where you're growing because of those new circumstances and your limits are being pushed, you need to have a safety net. Safety nets can be achieved by one or more of the following actions / qualities:

1. Seeking the advice of a coach / mentor
2. Using your critical thinking ability
3. Not rushing into risks without measuring them
4. Being prepared
5. Taking a gradual step-by-step approach
6. Analyzing the pros and cons for any new venture
7. ...what other safety nets can you think of? (Please add any in the comment section)

Those safety nets are considered to be buckling up your seat-belt. You need to grow, take risks, explore new frontiers, develop new habits, start new projects and find out about more people and build new relationships. You won't grow unless you do all that..Learn new skills and talk with new people and come up with new ideas..Terrific stuff. That's what I call flying high through the sky.

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But hold on a second. What about in the middle of your flying high with new opportunities, new skills, new ventures, new investments, new ideas and new relationships, do you forget or ignore your old ones? Is it possible that some people build new houses on the ruins of good old ones? But what if those old habits were really good ones and were the reason you reached where you're at now in life? Would you still leave them out? Would you sacrifice a skill you already have now which has been getting you ahead in life for a new skill that you want to learn? Would you sacrifice an existing fruitful relationship with a family member or a friend or a business associate for a new relationship with someone else?

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Would you sacrifice what you already have for what you want to acquire? If you ask me any of those questions, I would definitely say no. I come from an abundance mentality school of thought where I want to keep the beautiful flowers I have in my garden and add more flowers to them, instead of throwing away my beautiful old flowers to buy new ones.

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And that's the seat-belt you need to buckle up during your take off. You need to maintain your already existing relationships while building and cultivate new ones. You need to keep practicing and polishing your existing skills and knowledge before attempting to acquire new ones. You need to make sure you finish your old project and keep an effective follow up system on them before you start new ones. You won't grow in your life without widening your horizons and exploring new frontiers, while maintaining your existing success factors.

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You won't grow without expanding your comfort zone and learning more and applying this new knowledge. But you also won't grow much if you lose what you've gained so far in order to gain some more. Keep the good stuff that you have and build on it, instead of throwing it away and constantly strive to fill up a bucket that has multiple holes in it.

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