I have a love/hate relationship with stretching. I love it because I always feel better after I do it, but I hate it because it hurts while I’m doing it! But, the more I stretch, the closer I get to my goal of improved flexibility.
Stretching puts me in a growth mindset. Which means, if I want to be able to sit crossed legged or like a pretzel with my grandkids on the floor, stretching is what will close that gap and get me closer to my goal.
What is a Stretch Goal?
According to Google, a stretch goal is a target that is intentionally designed to be hard to reach. I know to be able to sit like a pretzel with my grandkids, that this target is going to be hard to reach. How do I know that, because I’ve been trying to reach the target for a long time.
Stretch goals are high effort and high risk. High effort means that I should be stretching a lot. And I don’t do it because it hurts. High risk would be not being able to sit on the floor and play with the grandkids if I don’t make the high effort to close the gap.
What is Your Stretch Goal?
Your stretch goal may not be like mine. It may be to close the gap in your relationships with your spouse, your kids, your parents your co-workers, or your friends. Maybe you’ve had some tension from this past year and half and you sense it and you know your relationships are not where you’d like them to be.
Or maybe your stretch goal is about your faith and understanding of God. Maybe you’ve been through some stuff, or your kids are going through some stuff and you feel like God is faraway or not paying attention and the pain of your past keeps you stuck. Or maybe at work, you’ve been taking on everyone else’s work because you want to please and you want others to see your good work ethic, but it’s overwhelming you and burning you out and you realize you are drowning.
We all have those areas in our life that in order to get from our present state to our desired state – we are going to have to make the high effort and believe that the high risk will be worth it to close the gap.
It’s Time to Stretch!
Like I said, stretching requires a growth mindset. And, well, quite frankly, a lot of us who are averse to taking risks, would rather stunt our growth than step into the hard. Especially if it will be painful and hard and take us a long time. It’s the difference between a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 3:18 ESV
Jesus is in the business of growing us up in His grace as we trust Him with our stretch goals. He doesn’t want us satisfied with the status quo of our fixed mindset. He wants us to stretch, endure and trust Him for the renewal of our minds. The more we stretch, the more flexible we become and before you know it you’ll have reached your stretch goal!
To help you stretch, click here for your free coaching moment resource!
You can do it! I believe in you!
Recent Comments