Sometimes life throws you a curve and you can jump right back up.
Sometimes you crawl slowly to your knees and then stand.
But once in a while, life just smacks you upside the head and knocks you back into a pit of mud.
And you just have to sit there. With the wind knocked out of you. In the mud. Letting it soak in and chill you to the bone.
You need to learn to breathe again. Gather your strength.
Eventually you will get up.
You will push on.
You will walk again.
And one day, you will run.
Travel Lighter
While you’re sitting there, cold, wet and alone, with all the pieces of your life broken and scattered around you, take the opportunity to choose very carefully which ones you pick up and carry forward, and in which direction you move when you start again.
How many of those activities and commitments and possessions do you really need? Are they leftovers from an earlier you? Things you’ve been clinging to for security? Things you didn’t even realize were weighing you down?
The direction you were headed – was it consciously chosen or was it just momentum, the continuation of something set in motion long ago, by others or by a “you” that had different needs, different options, different limitations?
Take a fresh look forward instead of going back to the same place. Back there is what landed you in the mud. Remember?
No one has the capacity to carry everything he accumulates throughout life without impact — to physical health, emotional well-being, the ability to cope with new challenges.
You can learn to spend your capacity wisely and consciously, making adjustments along the way. You can learn to let go of things that no longer serve you, that hold you back or keep you busy instead of enabling you to experience life. You can learn to make room for new things and new ideas that reflect who you are today and enable you to be who you want to be going forward.
Travel lighter and you just might be able to remain standing the next time life smacks you upside the head.
