One For The Trenches

While it would be great to feel happy and positive every moment of every day, there are times when adversity can be a challenge to deal with. When obstacles and road blocks come up it’s important to try to strike the fine balance between acknowledging the difficulty of the hurdle and its impacts, yet also being careful to not turn it into something bigger than it is. When the set-backs seem to clump together and fly in one after the other we can sometimes feel like we’re just barely keeping our head above water - perhaps not even having dusted ourselves off from the last obstacle when the next arrives. While it’s nice to be able to view these times as a positive challenge rather than a difficult one, that’s much easier said than done. It also isn’t always a realistic expectation to have of yourself - or someone else. Having to change course and make corrections so many times can make us feel like we’re stuck in that infamous “Friend’s” episode when they are trying to move a couch up the narrow stairwell. “Pivot!” Pivot! (you’re welcome for putting that back in you head). 

In all seriousness, it can be super frustrating (and exhausting) when one thing doesn’t go as planned so you pivot to try something else and then that too doesn’t seem to come together. At some point it can feel like the best thing to do is throw your arms up in the air and throw in the towel. That’s ok to do for a little while if you need to, but eventually you’re going to have to find yourself back at the drawing board. Because we don’t want to be spending too much time focusing on being in the trenches, this post in intensionally short; however I’d like to leave you with a quote from Paralympian Brianna Hennessy when asked how she stayed motivated in the face of adversity: “I deserved to know what it felt like to not quit on myself.” 

If you’re in the trenches, remember you too deserve to know what it feels like to not quit on yourself. Keep moving and keep trying and soon things will start working out.