Did you know that hermit crabs must leave their shell to grow?
Of course, being a hermit crab, leaving their shell is one of the most painful and uncomfortable things that they can do. But that is true of any type of growth whether a hermit crab or a human.
Last week marked my 35th birthday. This makes me born under the Cancer zodiac, the sign of the crab. Reflecting back on the last year, there have been many similarities to myself and a hermit crab leaving it’s shell. This year has been about growth and, of course, there have been some (very) uncomfortable periods. Here are a few of the things I have encountered and begun working through this year:
Find Your Voice. There is always value in this in your personal life but it is a necessary skill in business. This helps create boundaries, trust yourself and step into a leadership position.
Money is a metaphor for your worth. This is not about how much money you have or don’t have, this is about your relationship to money. Working in finance for years and now real estate, I feel comfortable with openly communicating about money. However normal your relationship is with money, there always seems to be residual issues. In the end, I realized that how you approach life is often how you approach money. If you’re white-knuckling money, you typically live fearful of life, which is not a great quality if you have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Every problem you ‘see’ is fear. I have taken the time this year to grapple with fear. Fear has a tendency to slow you down or completely paralyze you. To grow you have to sit with the fear and still move forward, as slow as it may be.
Notice the Patterns. How you respond to stress, anxiety, everyday annoyances or scary things (i.e. fear) has been ingrained since birth. Certain patterns have been helpful in the past but don’t serve a purpose as you grow. As an adult, it often feels like moving against the tide to change ingrained patterns. This year I dove deep into these unhelpful patterns and have taken time daily to try to break some of these patterns.
Compared to last year’s lessons, these lessons are smaller in size but fundamentally deeper in scope. As I enter into my 35th year, I plan to continue to take a cue from hermit crabs and continue living out of my shell.
Liz is broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.
