Wherever you are right now, today, in your emotional state, in your ability to handle life…
It’s okay.
It makes sense.
There’s a reasonable explanation.
For how happy you are. For what you are able to handle compared to other people. For what you know and don’t yet know.
But “I am who I am” only applies right now, in this moment. It’s not an excuse to stay there.
Stasis is death
A lesson I learned recently from fiction writing—If a character is not growing and changing, the story will not work.
The same is true in life.
There is no point we can reach while still breathing where we have arrived. Where we’ve put in enough work and now we’ve made it, now we can just coast, stop putting in effort. That’s not living. That’s forfeiting. That’s giving up and waiting for death.
With this attitude, one might get by. For a while. Many do.
But if you’re lucky, though it won’t feel like good fortune at the time, life will pick you up by the scruff and shove you out of your comfort zone.
There’s so much more for us than just getting by
Don’t be content with stasis. And don’t give up when things become more difficult. When what used to work for you is no longer enough.
Hitting challenges does not mean we’re inadequate or broken. It means we’re human.
There is no reason you “should” be able to do something better or “should” know how to handle everything you encounter.
If you look deeply and honestly at yourself and your life up until now, there is a reason you feel lost or ill-equipped in the face of something new.
Explore those reasons and accept the reality of where you are, right now, today. It’s okay if you’re behind where others are ahead. It’s okay if you haven’t yet learned what they seem to know instinctively. It’s okay to be scared.
But it’s not okay to forfeit.
Each new challenge is an opportunity to become a better, more capable, more self-sufficient You. Accepting that challenge and working hard is the true route to happiness. Step up and Take it.
