I came across an interesting blog post a few days ago talking about the crab bucket effect?Know what that is, well I didn’t either, but apparently if you put one crab in a bucket within a few minutes it will climb out, put two or more in bucket and one rarely climbs out, the others continually pull the other potential escapees back in.
In the current climate, I think this effect is all pervasive. We are a product of
- the people we associate with
- the books we read (or other sources of continuing learning)
- our environment.
In the current climate it is easier to buy into the doom and gloom and go with the flow, be pulled back into the bucket by those other crabs.
I have just finished a wonderful and inspiring book, “the Flipside” by Alan J. Jackson. In it Alan, describes many many inspiring stories of how people have overcome adversity and have gone on to achieve greatness.
The adversity faced would by most have been considered fatal (personal, financial, physical),but these people found the flipside, another way of looking at things, and found opportunity where others would only have seen only problems.
In all cases those who found the flipside, described how relationships with others (the people they associated with) helped them to find that flipside, to look for those opportunities and to climb out of that crab bucket.
In fact they were all grateful for the adversities they had faced because these problems had made them stronger and allowed them other opportunities.
What didn't kill them, did make them stronger, but not only that it gave a world of new opportunities.
Pushing your boundaries, takes you out of your comfort zone, puts you in new and unexpected places, but quickly, these areas become your new comfort zone and you have to keep pushing those boundaries, expanding your new comfort zones and growing every day.
"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose Wisely" Karen Kaiser Clarke
"There has never yet been a person in our history, who has led a life of ease, whose name is worth remembering" Theodore Roosevelt
