Never be afraid to challenge yourself!
Stumbling Forward
Whenever we begin something new there always seems to be a rush of emotions! It could be excitement at the beginning of a new relationship, it could be thrill at the undertaking of a new adventure, it could be anxiety at the thought of change, or it could be a constant state of nervous energy until you finally get a venture underway.
Regardless if you are feeling positive or negative emotion at the beginning, eventually the emotion wears off. New relationships can become stale, the adventure can become tiresome, the change you were anxious about turned out to be for the better and the venture you were nervous about undertaking becomes a steady routine.
Each time we begin something new we need to weather the roller coaster ride of emotions and get to a place where new becomes normal. And in order to get there, we must stumble forward.
Stumbling forward is a concept we easily master as children but digress in as adults. When we were learning to walk for the first time, if we had stopped trying after the first time we fell, we would have been doomed! Nothing would get done or accomplished, we would sit in one place waiting to die.
Sadly as adults, this is where many end up. They’ve lost the will to walk to a better life. They just accept where they are at and wait to die. The thought of trying to move in a positive direction is met with a flood of emotions all screaming at them why they SHOULDN’T move forward. They let the flood overtake them and they’ve quit before they started.
No matter what new thing you are pondering undertaking, there are some fundamental practices you can incorporate to keep yourself from self-sabotaging.
First, begin by taking those thoughts captive. What I mean by that is every time you encounter a thought that tells you why you shouldn’t, you counter it with why you SHOULD! Often times the same thought that says you shouldn’t is exactly the reason why you should.
For example, if you begin a new journey to get holistically healthy, when you get met with a thought like “you will never reach your goal” you can counter with, “I will never reach my goal if I sit here and do nothing about it.”
Next, understand this and really embrace it, anything being done for the first time is not going to be perfect. This is what stumbling forward truly is about. It is embracing the fact that you won’t master your “new” overnight. It will take continual failing, learning, mess ups, learning again, two steps forward, one step back.
The simple truth is that is normal! Just because you stumble doesn’t mean you quit! It just means you get back up and try, try again, until you get it right!
No matter what new you are undertaking, remember this, don’t worry about where someone else is at, don’t worry about if you got it exactly right this time, don’t worry about what everybody else is thinking, you stay focused on you!
You can reach your goals, you can change your life, you can make a difference, and you can become the best version of you! Keep on going, you got this!!!
