Painful growth

"Growth is often painful and scary. There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain."

We all grow up not knowing what we'll be and where we'll be.

Every change involves a loss of some kind : You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self-defeating, because, like a worn out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar.

People often build their identity around their defects. We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves. The truth will set us free but it often makes us miserable first. The fear of what we might discover if we honestly faced our character defects keeps us living in the prison of denial.