In 2015, I conceived, published and pre-sold the first print run of a 100,000-word book in less than 5 months. I had never done something of that kind or scale before.

In 2017 LinkedIn chose me to be one of their 10 global content marketing evangelists, over some formidably smart people.

In 2019, I wrote 365 blog posts in as many days, on the sideline of some big professional wins.

None of the above would have worked if I would have taken the easy path.

I chose to put myself under trial by fire. And, the only way to make it work was to not get bogged down by pressure.

At times trial by fire may not be a choice but a necessity. Your job, the boss or a client may put you in those situations. In situations like that, we do it because we have to do it.

But if we start looking at trial by fire as a tremendous opportunity and be grateful for such opportunities, then we’ll enjoy them instead of dreading them.

I am not big for announcing goals but if you are someone who likes to announce goals to be accountable then put yourself in a trial by fire situation. Announce something big and then do whatever it takes to do it.

When you get out of it, you’ll not be the same person because you would have experienced the growth of 5 years in 5 months.

Even more important than the pursuit of growth is to understand that taking risks and not waiting for things to come to us, is the only way to break the self-imposed walls around us.