The Best is Only a Little Better Than the Rest

Last time I wrote about how saving a little could turn into gains over time. Today, we’ll be looking at how doing a little bit more could bring in a lot more for you.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took our son to pick cherries in Brentwood. It was the start of the season and I had never been before. When we got there, we bought a cherry picker, which allows you to pick the cherries that are higher up. As we started picking, we noticed most of the cherries in the middle of the tree were already gone. However, the ones at the very top were still there. Nobody was willing to pick them… so we picked them. How? By climbing the trees of course! I could literally grab the ripe cherries by the handful. My wife took quite a few pictures of me intently grabbing all the cheers from the top of the trees. By the way, have I ever shared that I’m afraid of heights? 

Anyways, after a while, I realized that there were actually a lot of people there, but they just walked right by these trees. I saw maybe a handful of people who were willing to climb, but even if they did, they didn’t stay very long. After a couple of hours, we had two full bags, about 18 lbs. of cherries. People would ask where we got them, and I just pointed to the top of the trees. That’s when I saw some of them lose some hope. Clearly, they didn’t want to climb. Some went back and bought a cherry picker. 

What was the lesson? That all the riches (aka ripe cherries) are just a little higher than what everyone else is getting. What does it take to get it? A little bit of effort and discomfort, and facing some personal fears.

Isn’t that true for a lot of things in life? To lose some weight, you’re dealing with the discomfort of exercise or hunger from eating less. When you fall in love and you’re the first person to say, “I love you,” don’t you have to face the fear of rejection? When you ask for a raise at work, that can be a bit uncomfortable, right? Here’s a doozy, what about when you have to talk to your partner about a difficult situation? Even though you know that having the conversation, it’ll make the relationship stronger, you still drag it out, don’t you?

Humans avoid pain and discomfort because, as a species, that’s how we have survived. However, we’ve come a long way since the caveman days. We’re not worried about a wild animal killing us. For most of us, we are not in danger on a day-to-day basis. That fear we feel isn’t as real as we think it is. I would even go as far as to say by challenging that fear a little bit, we actually grow stronger and better. I should know, I was so sick of eating all those cherries.

All kidding aside, growth of any kind requires a bit of a stretch and some discomfort. If you’re willing to step into that discomfort with a plan, or at least figure it out along the way, you will grow. Once you’ve grown, you’ll look back and wonder why you were so scared in the first place. 

So in what way have you been scared to grow? What have you been avoiding? Is there something you need to learn? A conversation to have with a certain someone? Is there a task you’ve been avoiding? If you need a little support, please reach out to me and know that I’ll be stretching alongside you.

Kevin Koo is a professional coach who specializes in personal, business, and leadership development while trying to reach a little higher. Contact him at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com