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最近在游玩荷兰美丽的库肯霍夫花卉公园时，我了解到花卉打顶的实用技术。花卉成长期间，有时栽培者会剪掉花的顶端，他们相信这样做可以让植物为花的生长，而非生成种子投入更多精力。期待的结果就是花芽将生长出品质更佳的花朵。

这也是能用于个人成长的一个很好类比。当我们有时在某个领域获得初步成果时，剪除并舍弃这些成果不无裨益。这能为我们进行更有力的尝试而释放更多精力，而非让我们满足于以往的成果，沉溺在自己的安逸地带。

在经营了10年电脑游戏生意并获得满意成果时，我决定放弃这项事业并离开那个领域。这个决定释放了我的精力，使我得以专注于个人发展领域的写作和演讲事业。要是我继续经营以前的生意，便会更深地陷入其中，好比在那里洒下了更多种子。这让我只能在新的人生道路上投入更少的精力，得到更差的结果。

选择打顶式的成长途径并不容易，因为你要舍弃那些已经让人感到满意的事物，把它们从自己的生活中剪除，从而希望能有更好的事物在空出来的位置上生长。但要是你不这么做，就很容易阻碍自己未来的发展，让更多精力投入到在旧的生活道路上洒下更多种子。当你拒绝剪除已有成果，就等于在说：这便是今后最好的生活，我打算就此安顿下来。

你想在自己目前所处的位置安顿下来吗？如果是，那么打顶的成长方式就毫无必要。但若你想变得更好并相信自己有不断进步的胜算，就像库肯霍夫公园里的栽培者一样，那么采取打顶处理就是个明智的方法。为了在未来成长的新方向上释放出更多时间和精力，你不得不放弃那些仅让人满意的成果，从而为自己赢得真正美丽绽放的机会。

当你感到生活停滞不前，试着时不时搅乱一下自己手头的事情。许多情况下你都可暂时采用打顶的处理方式，丢掉自己的陈规旧习，尝试过一段时间新的生活。

作为搅乱自己生活的一种方法，我从4月23号开始就一直在旅行，先是去了德国，再到了荷兰，目前正在英国（待在伦敦的Shoreditch街区）。等回到拉斯维加斯，我便已在欧洲待了一个月。这将不只是我在欧洲旅行的最长时间，也是我有史以来离家旅行的最长时间。

这次旅行中，我放弃了自己在家时的常规作息方式，从而尝试过一段时间不同的生活。我来时买的是单程票，也只提前计划了一部分旅行安排。即便在家时的生活方式已让我心满意足，但既然选择将其舍弃一段时间，我就不再需要为了保持这种常规生活而投入任何精力。这意味着我能释放出更多能量，用于探索和个人成长。这也基本上是我现在每天正做的事情 ——出门旅行、体验新经历、认识新人群、探索、学习，还有不断成长。

我并不是由于出现了任何问题而断开与以往常规生活的联系。以前的生活对我也挺合适。我打断它是因为我不想让自己因此而停滞不前，即便那是种看起来非常不错的生活。

当你的生活相对静止地停留在一个地方足够长的时间，你就会洒下种子。随时间流逝，这些种子将发展出越来越强壮的根须。你的现实世界会变得逐渐牢固，此时再做任何改变就显得更加困难。你静止不动的时间越长，更多人就会基于你当前的位置和你发生联系。你的物理世界环境可能就开始对你的日常生活产生越来越多的控制。很快你会发现一年年过去了，但自己的生活却变化甚微。这就是你的安逸地带。

如果你喜欢这种安逸地带并想停留在此，那是你的个人选择。我自己并不愿意在这里停留太久。一旦我的生活变得有些太舒适，自己觉得可以放松下来心满意足地维持现状，我就感到要挣脱这种现实并寻求更多成长的冲动。

走出你的安逸地带从定义上来讲是种不太舒适的体验，但它比维持现状能给你带来更多成长。例如在欧洲旅行期间，我每天都会面对新的挑战，比如错误地选择从柯芬园地铁站底层拾阶而上（就像从地球中心往上爬）。但每天有这么多探索和学习的经历，我感觉天天都饱含各种小胜利，而这是很少在家能体验到的。

放下满意的生活去寻求更多成长并非一条容易追随的道路，但我的确发现这是条更加美妙之路。你是否有同样的感觉呢？

来源：Steve Pavlina.com

Do You Want Comfort Or Growth?

At a recent visit to the beautiful Keukenhof flower gardens in Holland, I learned about the practice of topping. As flowers grow, sometimes the growers cut off the tops of the flowers, which they believe causes the plants to invest more energy into flower growth and less into seed production. The expected result is flower buds that will produce higher quality flowers.

This is a nice analogy for personal growth as well. Sometimes when we produce preliminary results in a certain area, it can be helpful to cut them off and discard them. This can free up energy for a stronger attempt elsewhere instead of settling into the comfort zone of satisfaction with the old results.

After running my computer games business for 10 years and generating satisfying results with it, I decided to drop it and leave that field behind. This freed up my energy to focus on my personal development writing and speaking. If I’d kept running the old business, I’d have become more enmeshed in that field, planting more seeds there, so to speak. This would have meant less energy to invest in my new path and weaker results.

It can be difficult to choose the topping approach because you’re taking something that’s already reasonably satisfying and cutting it out of your life, in the hopes that something even better will grow in its place. But if you don’t do this, then you can easily stunt your future growth, causing more energy to be invested in planting ever more seeds around the old path. When you decline to make cuts, you effectively say: This is as good as it will ever be, so I’m going to settle myself here.

Do you want to settle where you are right now? If so, then topping is unnecessary. But if you’d like to do better and believe you have a good shot at improvement, just like the flower growers at Keukenhof, then topping is a sensible practice. To free up time and energy for future growth in new directions, you have to drop the merely satisfactory. This gives you a shot at the truly beautiful.

When you feel like life is becoming too stagnant, try mixing things up now and then. In many cases you can apply topping on a temporary basis by dropping old routines and trying something new for a while.

As a way to mix things up, I’ve been traveling continuously since April 23, first to Germany, then Holland, and now I’m in the UK (staying in the Shoreditch part of London). By the time I return to Vegas, I’ll have been in Europe for a month. That’s not only my longest trip to Europe but also my longest trip away from my home base ever.

During this time, I’ve dropped my old routine that I would normally use at home, and I’m trying something different for a while. I arrived with a one-way ticket, with only some part of the trip planned in advance. Even though my home-based routine was reasonably satisfying, by choosing to cut it out for a while, I no longer need to invest any energy in maintaining that routine. This means that more energy is freed up for exploration and growth. That’s basically what I’m doing each day — going out, having new experiences, meeting new people, exploring, learning, and growing.

I didn’t break with the old routine because of any problems with it. The old routine was working okay for me. I broke away because I didn’t want to allow myself to get stuck, even in a seemingly good place.

When you stay relatively still for long enough, you put down seeds. As time passes, these seeds develop stronger and stronger roots. Your reality becomes increasingly solid, and this can make change more difficult. The longer you stay still, the more people will relate to you based on your current position. Your thoughts and feelings may become repetitive and circular. Your physical environment may begin to exert more and more control over your daily routine. Pretty soon you notice that as the years are passing, little is changing in your life. This is the comfort zone.

If you like the comfort zone and wish to stay there, that’s your choice. I prefer not to get stuck there for too long. As soon as life becomes a little too comfortable, and I feel like I can just relax into the satisfaction of maintaining the status quo, I feel the urge to break free of that reality and go for more growth.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone is by definition an uncomfortable experience, but it can yield a lot more growth than staying put. During my Europe trip, for instance, each day brings new challenges, like making the mistake of taking the stairs from the bottom of Covent Garden Underground Tube Station (felt like climbing up from the earth’s core). But with so much to explore and learn each day, it feels like every day includes minor victories of the sort that I seldom experience at home.

Dropping satisfaction to go for more growth is not an easy path to follow, but I do find it to be the more beautiful path. Do you feel the same?

Source：Steve Pavlina.com

（责任编辑：职场达人）