A friend of mine told me once: “Pick one thing that you can win today. Once you make it, pick another, then another.” How I hope I learned this sooner. – #sundaewrites
I always make it a point to come prepared. It doesn’t matter which assignments I take, be it at work, ministry, personal goals or any activity set out on my calendar. You see, I don’t like to be in a place where I’d hear myself mutter “I should have…” I have high expectations from “me” and fortunately (or unfortunately), I project these expectations towards others.
Half of the time things go the way I envisioned them, and the rest of the time, they don’t. I get so pumped up on those “sunny days”, and well, “rainy days”- they always get me down. These down moments seem to carry on forever. My heart bleeds, my positivity loses strength, my demeanor and stance obviously mirror defeat.
Still, I show up.
As much as I want to analyze my feelings and thoughts piece by piece, I desire so much to just hit the rewind button and start fresh- wish I was better that day, wish I was smarter, wish people were more kind, more responsible, more caring. When I realized I couldn’t even fulfill the wishes I had for myself, I understood how ridiculous it is to expect my wishes for other people to come true.
As I was driving home one evening I felt the urge to confront myself one question. “Why do you easily get frustrated?” A number of answers came up.
Your standards are too high
You’re trapped in the illusion of a perfect world
You’re over confident
You fooled yourself into believing that people are perfect
You like to operate in your own little world and expect people to fit in there
A lot of thoughts came running like athletes on a marathon pushing towards the finish line. Suddenly it felt too much. These voices. They hit you like a big wave, smashing and forcing you under water till you struggle to breathe and lose the will to swim.
Then it stopped. Calmness stepped in like a sudden quietness, a glimmer of pure silence.
I wrestled with that peace. Reluctantly I said, “Okay’ I’m going to keep my commitment to those I made it to”. And that still, small voice answered, “No, keep the commitment you made to Me”. It’s like He knows, He’d hear me say “I quit” time and time again.
Point blank. I didn’t have the courage to say yes to that. So I argued some more
“It’s difficult”.
“It’s unfair”.
“How can you expect that from me?”
Did I get more answers? No. I was left with those questions.
I guess, there’s no easy way to go about it, no easy way to go about uncertainties and the feeling of being let down.
A friend of mine told me once: “Pick one thing that you can win today. Once you make it, pick another, then another.”
Some days we lose, some days we win. I think the outcome is important, but more than that, the process is. Whether we get a trophy or a zero star rating on any given day, it should not stop us from taking the next step. We don’t get it all figured out at the start, even as we go on. But do we always have to have the answers? Maybe, but even if we don’t we go out there and keep asking anyway. We go out there and pick ourselves up. We go out there and show up. Life “wills” you to take risks. When you do, it will define you and redefine you. At the end of it, you can never lose.
Questions:
Have you also experienced being let down? Did you wrestle with frustration? How did you come off it and what lessons did you learn? I’d love to hear from you.
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sundaewrites 