Outgrowing Your Shell: The Courage to Become a Bigger You

Imagine you’re a hermit crab, cozy and safe inside your shell. It’s your home, your protection against the harsh world outside. Life is good. But there comes a time when this shell just doesn’t fit anymore. It becomes too tight, too limiting. 

Hermit crabs don’t grow their own shells; they need to search for them—and sometimes this search to find just the right shell can take quite a long time. Eventually, they move into their new home, and when they outgrow it, they will once again have to find a bigger one. 

This means taking a big risk: stepping out into the unknown, unprotected, in search of a new home.

Leaving Our Shells Behind

Just like the hermit crab, we often find ourselves getting comfortable in our own ‘shells’—our daily routines, our familiar surroundings, our mindsets, our safe choices. 

These shells protect us, but they also confine us. To grow, to really expand into who we could be, we must dare to step out of safety and face the challenges of the difficult and the unknown. 

Of course, it’s risky. But the alternative is staying small, and never discovering the true limits and the potential inside of us.

Resilience: The Key to Bigger, Better Lives

Leaving your shell isn’t easy. It means facing the unknown, taking risks, and being okay with feeling uncomfortable. But it’s also the only way to truly grow. When we step out of our comfort zones, we open ourselves up to new experiences and opportunities. We learn new things, meet new people, and discover new strengths within ourselves.

And stepping out of your shell isn’t a one-time thing. You have to do it over and over again throughout your life. Each time you face a setback or a failure, it feels like you’re exposed and vulnerable. But every time you get do knocked down and decide to get back up, you’re choosing growth. 

You’re choosing to become a bigger person, to pursue a greater mission in life.

Think of every challenge as a chance to find a new shell, one that fits the larger “you” that you need to become.

The Greatness Within Us

We all resist our greatness. It’s easier to play it safe, to avoid failure, to stay where things are comfortable. But deep down, we all have a bigger, bolder, and more incredible self waiting to emerge. Like the hermit crab, our growth depends on our willingness to leave behind the safety of our current shells.

So, you might think to yourself: What’s my shell? What comfort am I clinging to that’s actually keeping me from growing? It might be a job, a relationship, a mindset, or a place. Recognizing it is the beginning. 

The next bolder, braver step is taking a deep breath and stepping out—exposed, vulnerable, but prepared for something bigger.

I’ve always believed that each one of us has greatness inside of us. I think we all have incredible potential that can only be realized if we dare to leave the familiar behind when we need to grow. 

Let’s get out there together and find our new shells.

-Jack

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