Challenge yourself!
Princ tells you all about yet another way to use your creative mind and how purposely challenging ourselves makes us better and wiser!
Hey guys!
Princ here again. How's your summer going? I hope you’re making time for all the things you love. I'm spending most of my days tugged into my favorite blue plants whose scent is so mesmerizing that I just cant get enough of it. That also means I spend most of my time on the balcony, where these magical flowers can be found, soaking up the sunshine and happily dozing off.
But that's not all I do. Being outdoors also provides lots of opportunities for fun, and one of my favorite things to do, especially when I get a little bored and have that extra energy infused by the sweet sunshine, is finding ways to challenge myself.
Remember how last time we spoke, I told you all about the need for a creative mind to solve problems? Well, sometimes you also need a creative mind for creating problems! Okay… wait… that doesn’t sound quite right… because if hoomans are good at something it's actually using up all their creativity on creating problems out of thin air. It’s pretty impressive, I give you that, but the silly part is, you stress yourself out with these newly created problems instead of enjoying them…
What I have in mind, on the other hand, is putting an obstacle in our usual way of doing things – purposely and knowingly as a fun way to challenge ourselves. And why would we do that? Because if we’re still for too long, and do things the same way all the time, boredom will creep in. And I hate boredom!
So, in such cases, it’s time to step out of our comfort zone, see what we’re capable of and thus grow a bit more once again. Ah, what a great feeling that is! So much better than being bored.
So, what I do for example when I’m practically camping on the balcony all summer long, is putting an obstacle in front of me in the form of finding new ways to get back home. Normally, one would walk through the balcony door of course. Which is open at all times specifically for me. But that would be way too boring.
So, instead, I think: wow, wouldn’t it be fun to think of a way to get home through the window?!
Once a thought like that occurs, I immediately take action. I inspect the window from all sides, see if I could get through the small crevice there… or there... I use my paws to measure and feel, and think of all the options. After all, I have seen the window open entirely in the past and it was quite fun getting to the balcony and back that way. So… how could I possibly replicate it?
Once I use up all the options, I find a winning combination – I stand on the windowsill and meow as loudly as I can for as long as needed, trying to catch my hooman's attention, and indicating by my paw what I want.
The trick works pretty quickly, but for some reason, they try to persuade me to use the balcony door... they just clearly don’t understand the rules of this game...
But after a little while and my persistence, they give up and finally join in the fun! This means they first need to remove all the plants on the indoor side of the windowsill, find a place for them and only then open the window. For some reason, they don’t seem to enjoy this process, but hey, I figured by now hoomans don’t always have the fun gene nor do they like to be challenged...
Now, it’s important to remember, it’s mainly about the challenge of figuring out the way, not necessarily going through the window. So, once the window is fully open, I triumphantly walk through it a couple of times, there and back and back again, and then walk back home through the balcony door as they initially suggested, hoping to make them happy. I don’t even have to tell you, that once again, not only doesn't make them happy, but they clearly don’t get the fun part in this…
But the point is, I set myself a challenge, that may have felt impossible, I managed to overcome it and solve it and felt great after. And of course, enjoyed the process!
Unfortunately, hoomans don’t really have this mindset of enjoying challenges let alone challenging themselves on purpose very often. So, sometimes I have to step in for them too and create a challenge for them myself. Of course, all in good heart.
In such cases, I would usually start acting a little out of character – they call it being naughty – and keep going until they figure out a creative way to stop me. It’s really fun sometimes, but somehow I seem to enjoy it more than them once again. After all, each time you try to challenge someone else, you’re actually challenging yourself too.
So, basically, what I want you to remember is, to not be afraid of challenges or obstacles. And that sometimes an obstacle on your way – that you created yourself (yes, in most cases it’s actually you, believe it or not, unless it’s your loving cat who means well), can be the most rewarding and fun thing to overcome. Because with each obstacle overcome we become wiser and feel stronger and more alive and we also become more confident. Which explains why cats are such confident creatures. Because we enjoy challenging ourselves and we do it often.
With that said – if you feel you’re in one place for far too long (both literally and figuratively), just go ahead and set yourself some new challenge. Do something you think you can’t do! Surprise yourself and feel better for it. It’s all in your paws. You don’t have to wait. And remember - above all, enjoy the process!
Until next time!