Someday you’ll look back on all the progress you made and be so glad that you didn’t give up.
We all get stuck from time to time, but if we keep chipping away at our goals, one day we’ll look back at what was once difficult and realize how far we’ve come since then.
When we’re making slow and steady progress, we may not realize how much we’ve improved. But take a moment to look back. Reflect on how far you’ve come already and keep that in mind when you feel like giving up on today’s tough task.
Don’t give up. Never stop trying to improve yourself. Always keep learning, growing, developing new skills, and enhancing old ones.
“Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.” – Heraclitus
What you think about and what you do on a daily basis is who you become.
Are you thinking positive thoughts or negative ones?
Are you surrounded by optimistic people who lift others up or people who gossip and only talk about what’s wrong in their life?
Do you walk around with a smile on your face or do you mope around like Eeyore?
You get to choose who you become by controlling your thoughts, words, and actions. You can’t change what you’ve done in the past, but you can make a decision to do better today and, more specifically, start with your next action. Live intentionally and you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish/who you can become.
“The journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
How often do we look at success stories and either become envious of the person who “made it” or think to ourselves, “I could never do that.”
The truth is, we are more capable than we think. Everyone has to start somewhere. Sometimes, our starting lines are staggered, as some people grow up in better/worse environments, with more/less natural abilities, resources, and privileges. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up before we even get started!
Start where you are. Put blinders on. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where you start versus where anyone else starts, it only matters that you start AND that you keep going. Because the situation is what it is. You can’t do anything to change the past – whether it’s your past actions/inactions or your parents’ past actions/inactions. You are where you are and the only thing that can change that is you. You can choose to make your life better or you can make excuses for why you can’t do something.
The key to any great story though, is that the hero of the story got started. It started with a single step. And the best stories – the most compelling ones – aren’t the ones where everything comes easy to the hero. The hero often will have doubts and have to go through trials and tribulations. But the reason we know about these heroes is because they overcame the difficulties they faced and persevered. Whether you think about Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or even Jesus Christ. They all started somewhere. They all had challenges they needed to overcome. But to get to where they needed to be, each of them kept taking the next step.
So take a look at your life. Are you where you want to be? Are you proud of the story you’re writing? We are each the heroes of our own journeys. Refuse to play the victim, the villain, or a passive character. Be the hero! Take the first step and keep on going.
“Finish each day and be done with it…tomorrow is a new day.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
At the end of the day, you might have some regrets about what you did or didn’t do or what you said or didn’t say, but you have to let it go.
You can’t change that anymore.
The best thing you can do is to move on. If you feel bad about something, apologize or do something to make it right – don’t dwell on things you can’t change.
Worrying is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.
“Worry won’t get you to where you want to go. Action is the only way…”
To me, the only potential benefit to worrying is that it might help you think of ways that things might go sideways, allowing you to plan your next move ahead of it. But if you just get good at thinking of all the angles ahead of time, putting a contingency plan in place, and then still take action, you’ll be better off.
Where people get in trouble is when they let their worries, fears, and anxiety take over. When they overthink a situation, it’s almost like they’re in quicksand and can’t move. But if they realize that many of their worries will never actually come to fruition, they’ll be better off.
Another way to think about fear is this…what do I really fear about this situation? In a worst case scenario, what is going to happen? Maybe someone will tell you no or you’ll be embarrassed. Well, get used to it. All successful people have been told “no” a lot in their lives. All successful people have had to take a chance (and often fail) to get to where they are.
Worrying is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do (there’s always something we can be worried about), but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
