Double Check Your Approach

Our journey doesn't start with rainbows and sunshine, yet like me, some of us have started from the bottom. Like most stories, you have a background. Your story has gotten you to this point of your life. All of the ups and downs have brought you to this exact moment. 

So we have to go back to the starting line. The time you knew that there has to be more to life. The time you needed there to be more in life. The time when you weren't sure that there was a meaning to life. 

This is the bottom or one of the toughest struggles you face. The best way to explain the next chapter of our journey is rock climbing. 

What? I know, but just stay with me and listen. I am in no way an expert in this sport, but I have done it a few times, not including 7th-grade gym class. There are two ways to experience the climb. So let's get ready. Imagine yourself standing in front of this rock wall. You look all the way up at this huge obstacle and can barely see the top. You have a harness wrapped around you, and a person next to you holding these ropes, so you don't drop like a fly. Now, you take your first step grabbing the closest rock, pulling yourself up along the way. The reality of heights and your body strength is all you can think of as you get higher and higher up. You finally reach the top and feel this huge relief that you didn't fall.

Your perspective of the climb was most likely exhausting. It's similar to the feeling of daily stress. You can see what looks like to be the end of wall, but you have a long way to go. Each reach is one more push of everything you have. You worry about how you are going to get to the top, or falling to the bottom. I can attest that daily stress is tougher that it sounds.  Some days feel like a giant snowball getting bigger, and it's getting heavier. One task turns into 20 things that can wrong, and you feel like you're drowning. Take a deep breath, and look at the rock wall differently. What if you looked at this wall (life) and truly believe in yourself that you are going to the top, and nothing is going to hold you down? Did you think about the harness you were wearing for safety? What about the person standing next to you also to help you down without falling? Did you focus on each rock or the determination to make it to the top? 

All of this is to show us that life is all about perspective. It is how you approach each day of stress. 

You have to stop and think about the result. You will make it to the top. You have the strength to push yourself to the top. You have the support you need all around you. You have people to lean on when you feel like you are going to fall. The climb of life is how you approach it. Take a minute to realize your options before starting. Have confidence in yourself knowing you can tackle any obstacle that you come to face. I'm saying it won't be that easy every time, but practice makes perfect. Like my last post, it's about telling yourself you can do it. If you take a minute and analyze what is in front of you and the stress may not be so difficult.

-DC