Fear is There

I think I say I'm a much bigger fan of ambiguity then I actually am. A few summers ago I found myself really lost in a train station in Hamburg. I was supposed to be meeting my friend at one of the exits but I could not find it. I wandered around like an idiot for about twenty minutes, retracing my steps and desperately trying to connect to wifi to send her a message and let her know I was here, I just didn't quite know where "here" was. 

What is it about being in an unfamiliar situation that instills such panic in us? I was a perfectly competent adult but in that moment I had no idea what to do. I just wandered around trying to find the exit until I heard a familiar voice say my name. 

I went from feeling panicked to calm almost instantly. It got me thinking about how comforting it is to find a frame of reference. 

Since I've started this journey with Peregrine I've found myself longing for familiarity on multiple occasions. I've often felt a bit lost wondering exactly how I got myself here. There have been many new challenges but I think the hardest part has been the ambiguity. Everything we've done this past year has been a first. We've had nothing to look back on and compare to, it's all been completely new. 

I've never owned a business before, or been my own boss. I've never been a wholesaler a distributor or a manufacturer. Everything has been a first. The learning curve has been steep to say the least, but we've been able to do it. Things that 6 months ago we had no knowledge of have now become daily routines and that's the beauty of living in the world of the ambiguous. When you have no frame of reference you have to create your own.

As we approach this upcoming holiday season I'm finding comfort in the fact that after an entire year of firsts we are finally experiencing a second. For an entire year we have lived in ambiguity and oddly enough it seems almost strange now to have a frame of reference. 

When is the last time you felt pushed out of your comfort zone?

Keep Climbing

-K