Your job is being threatened. You’ve made some mistakes and have been given the order to improve. Is this your tomb…?

Your relationship is over and ending in divorce. You wonder if you’ll recover or if you can ever open your heart again to love. Is this your tomb…?

You’ve poured your heart and soul into a project. The deadline is tomorrow and you just discovered a fatal flaw. You’re not sure if you will succeed and you wonder what will happen if you fail. Is this your tomb…?

You’ve lost a loved one – a mentor, a parent, and a friend. Your world seems less colorful without them in it. Is this your tomb?

…or, will you bloom?

Every day we have so many challenges that we face. While some aren’t as potentially cataclysmic and life-changing as the ones above, often, when faced with adversity (or so many mini-adversities that just keep piling on to the point that they exhaust us), we choose the tomb; for that situation to bury us by the simple act of settling for less than we can be, do, or deserve. We still choose the comfort and safety of that tomb.

Sometimes, we choose the tomb so often that it becomes our home. In doing this it becomes our default, go-to choice. Sadly, it becomes familiar…almost comfortable. We choose that option so much that “tomb” almost becomes a verb.

The challenge to consider this week is can you make a choice? Can you choose to bloom instead of choosing the tomb? Can you choose to make it work? Can you choose to find new possibilities within a seemingly dire situation? Can you choose to discover a part of you that you thought never existed and, in doing so, ignite a new level of confidence, passion, and success?

Can you?

I think you can too.

Choose to bloom, not the tomb.