“You gotta go through it”

When my kids were little, their favourite book was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.

I must have read it to them a hundred times.

I loved it: the sense of adventure, the rhythm of the words, and all those onomatopoeia.

So much swishing and squishing and squelching.

In the story, a family sets out to find a bear.

On the way, they cross all kinds of tricky terrain: rivers, mud, forests, a wild snowstorm…

And each time they face an obstacle, they realise:

There’s no easy way round it: they can’t go over it, they can’t go under it — they have to go *through* it.


What I didn’t realise at the time was that it’s also a powerful metaphor for life.

Life has its share of tricky challenges.

And if we want to keep moving forward towards our goal we have to go through the discomfort.

Whether it’s advocating for yourself, pitching at high-stake meetings, or leading with more presence…


I know from experience, there’s no shortcut to confidence.

No perfect, magic-wand trick that lets us skip the nerves - or the task.

Sometimes we might feel like we’re crossing a fast-flowing river.

Or squelching through sticky mud.

But if we want to move forward and grow — we have to go through it.

Not perfectly.

Not alone.

But through it we must go.


Tell me: what bear are you chasing? And how will you get there…?