Relieving Tension

The very nature of goals and aspirations causes tension, and sometimes that tension can become uncomfortable. The greater the goal, the greater the tension and quite possibly, the discomfort.

Imagine a giant, invisible rubber band wrapped around you – where you are today in your current state – and some future goal – where you desire to be or who you aspire to become. Now that you have set that goal for yourself, there’s pressure on you to achieve the objective. That’s the tension from the rubber band. Although invisible, those forces are very real and can cause some stress and discomfort.

Because you are a human being – and human beings don’t like feeling that tension – you will naturally seek to relieve that tension. The first way is to begin the mission of moving towards the objective, painstakingly reducing the distance between you and the goal. As you get closer to the target, the tension begins to diminish and is replaced by excitement as you near your goal.

However, there is another way to reduce that tension. You could also change the objective and choose something that isn’t quite as far away, something that’s less of a stretch. While this approach may relieve some of the tension, it is certainly not replaced by excitement. In fact, feelings of defeat and compromise will likely flood in and create a different sort of stress, the internal strain of settling.

Every day you make that choice to stretch to where you could and should be, or settle for something closer to where you already are. The tension is relieved either way, but what replaces it could not be more different.

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