Random, Aimless and Unplanned – Time to Turn This Around

Life is happening. All the time.
The question about this is simple. Even when the answers are unfriendly or when the answers are unlikeable, the answers are simple too.

There will always be a choice. We might not like the choices. We might not favor either of them and sometimes, there will be days when we have to choose the lesser of two evils.
I know.
Either way, the questions are simple.
And so are the answers.

What do you do when you don’t think that you have enough to get up?
How do you counteract the voices in your head that betray you or tell you to quit or why bother?
What do you do if you get knocked down?

You’re hurt.
You feel empty.
Money is tight.
Life is unfair.
You’re not sure when your next break will be, or, if there is a break, will it be good enough?

You’ve been knocked down, you lost, your bills are due, and you have no idea how to get up or keep moving.
So?
What do you do when there’s no one else around to help you get back up?
What do you do when there’s no one else to help you clean up your mess?
How do you fight from your back or from your knees?
How do you get back up when you don’t believe you have what it takes?

This is life. Nothing is all happy and perfect.
Adversity is real.
Sometimes, adversity is the only thing that is real.
This is our DNA.
But still what do you do?

What do you do when the only emotions you have are ones that break you down or make you cry?

You have no help.
You have no idea what to do next.
You’re tired and you’re hurt.

Or maybe you found yourself at the bottom of an outcome.
This happens too.
Maybe this is the case that due to circumstances beyond your control, your life changed, as in “out of nowhere,” and maybe the curves or the twists and the turns ahead are too frightening and maybe the days ahead of you are intimidating.
And you’re afraid.
So?
Maybe this is nothing more than another test of your strength.
Then again . . .
Maybe we wish the tests could stop.
Perhaps we would be fine to be less strong and less tested, but life is our teacher and the lessons are far from over.
So get ready. dress yourself, and let the class begin.
The tests are coming, no matter what.

Are you strong enough?
Of course you are.
No one else has your ability.
No one else can do what you do.
This might not seem like much but be aware, the way you see yourself can be inaccurate and while you view yourself as weak, someone else is looking up to you, like a hero.
You should remember this.
You should remember that trading problems is not the answer.
Be grateful your life is not worse, and yes, everything could be worse, as in much worse.
Everything about you is a testament to your unbreakable strength, which I admit is hard to see when you’re on the ground or knocked out.
But that doesn’t matter anymore.

So –
Get Up!

No matter what. No matter how bad.
No matter who the enemy is, even if the enemy is you, just know that now is the time to make your stand. Now is the time to recover and move to a better position. Advance yourself, by any means, and do this for you. Do this for yourself—and be aware, pay attention, and be mindful that even the tiniest improvement is still an improvement.
This is a victory and even the smallest victories can add up to be plentiful.

Build from this.
One step at a time.
Do not give up.
And yes, the journey is long.
I get that.
I understand what it feels like when your legs are too weak to hold you up, your back aches, your heart hurts, your mind is stuck on the assumptions that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and so the question is not what are you going to do now.
No.
The question becomes how are you going to change your thinking?
How are you going to change the script?
How are you going to move ahead?

How are you going to improve your belief system and switch from the mind of a failure to the thinking of a hero?
How are you going to update your thinking from being a quitter to being someone who refuses to give in?
The questions are simple.
Not easy.
The answers are simple too.
It’s not the answer or the question that can be tough.
No.
It’s the action to influence and to create change.
This is the tough part.
This is when you have to create movement and switch from a plan of years to inches and move when you can. Do whatever seems possible and defy the impossibilities with every move you make.

No one talks openly about life.
No one tells you their truths about how life is hard and how there are times when the world is too painful or too dark. No one talks about the crazy stirs of depressive thinking, or wait, how come no one openly expresses the anticipations and the anxious ideas, which turn into panic? And next, we find that our heart starts to race, and our chest gets tight.
Enter the realms of anxiety and panic attacks.
We can hardly breathe, let alone catch our breath and calm ourselves down.
We can hardly think because our thoughts are riddled with fear and they have have turned against us.

No one tells you about the pain and even when people talk about this, the pain or the fear, most people put on their brave face or they change their smile, as if to distance themselves from this kind of thing.
But this is life.

Pain happens.
Betrayal happens.
People will hurt you.
People will leave you alone when you need them the most.
People will lie and tell you, “Don’t worry. You can count on me.”
They’ll say this all the time, until the time comes when you need them, or you expect them, and that’s when you look around to realize that hey, no one is there— no one, except for you.

What are you going to do now?
Quitting is not an option.
Dying is not an option.
You lost your dream?
You lost the life you thought you were going to have?
Good . . .
There is no way to it, but through it.
There is no escaping the facts, there is no way around the truth, and yes, no matter what you think, or feel, and no matter how weak you may think you are, now is the time for redemption.

So, get up.

Dust yourself off.

Now is the time to get back to the most basic movement, which is to plant your feet, rise, and stand as tall as you possibly can.
I want this for you.
I want this for me too.
Reach for your dreams.
Reach for your redemption.

Reach for the stars or reach for anything you can grab—but reach for whatever is possible to pull yourself up and keep yourself from being on the ground.
Pull yourself from the swamps of your emotional quicksand and get yourself out and back to where you want to be.

Do not apologize anymore.
Do not tell your plans to the world.
You do not have to sell your dreams to anyone else and you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone anymore.
As a matter of fact, you never have to do this again.

You’ve been hurt?
You got knocked down?
Did life knock the wind out of you?
Okay . . .
Did your dreams topple over and leave you hopeless?
Good.
Get up.
Start over.
You have not lost everything.
You’re only in need of an adjustment.
You didn’t lose everything.
Believe this.
Believe that you have gained a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, which are the next three ingredients that you’ll need to get back up and to go at it again.

There is no more reverse or backsliding.
There are no more days of sitting in the sad pasts and holding the sentiments that do nothing else but keep us stuck.

The best revenge is not revenge.
The best revenge is to prove that no one ever knocked you down so hard that you did not have the ability or the resiliency to get back up again.
No matter how hard they hit you—or hurt you, either way, you stood back up.
You showed up.
You took the pain.
You ate this like candy and once you’ve removed the waste from your body, then yes, I want you to flush it all away and let it go.
There’s nothing left to hold on to.
It’s time to say goodbye to what was.
And trust me, if it “was” than it probably wasn’t as good or as true as you thought.

You had a plan, and it didn’t work out?
So what?
Go at it again.
Rebuild your plan and never look back.

Make your adjustments.
Fix yourself.
Stand up and stand tall.
Above all, never give yourself away to the point where you lose yourself to a person, place, or thing and allow them to control or weigh you down.
No one is worth that.

You had your heart broken?
You missed your chance?
You know what?
Me too.
So?
What are we going to do now?
Have you been lied to?
Have you been betrayed?
Did someone promise you something and not come through?
Good.
What are you going to do now?
The question is simple.
So are the answers.

Did your plans go to shit?
Is your life different from what you expected?
Good.
Make an adjustment.
Get back up and make your plan.

Do not quit.
Do not stop.
Test yourself.
Push yourself harder and allow yourself to be surprised that you can do more than you assumed.
Trust me. You will not be disappointed.

Despite what you believe, you are the most powerful person in your universe.
Believe this because this will help push you when your legs are too weak to stand.
Believe this will help when your arms are too weak to pull yourself up.
Know that you can adapt and that you can adjust and you can improve.
And know this, ” No one can stop you!”

You can overcome anything.
The only thing that no one can defy is death itself—however, we die alive more than we think, and so in all honesty, neither of us are dead (yet) which means that we have the ability to get back up.

We have to find the fire in our heart—even if it seems like the spark is gone, we have to feed the fire in our heart instead of the floods in our life.

We need to be our own best friend.
We need to be our own superhero.
But more than anything, we need to save ourselves, every day, for the rest of our lives. From now until the hour of our death, we have to commit that not even death will stop us.
We have to commit that, somehow, we will find something that proves us, or that shows who we are, and how we did more than “just” survive because despite the knockdown or the drag-out fights, we chose to find a way to stand back up and recover.
This is the answer.
The action might not be as easy.
But the answer is simple.

I will always remember and I will never surrender; however, there are truths and unchangeable items in our life.
I cannot fight them anymore, so instead, I have chosen to surrender to these truths and more, I have chosen to surrender to win.

I am not going to fight the uncontrollable or the unfixable.
I am not going to fight the tides or fight the unchangeable.
But no matter how rough the seas can be, I will fight through the angriest seas and I will never search for any port in the storm again — so, as the winds blow and the storms rage, I swear to this, that I will stand firm and keep my course, until I find myself home where I am supposed to be.

I didn’t quit.
I just paused for a minute.
I needed to catch my breath and regain my composure.
I needed to find the strength it takes to get back up.
I am ready to fight back.
I’m here to live more, and love more, and before I go down for the last nap, and before I close my eyes for the last time, I swear, and you can bet your ass that I will never submit to a life less-desired.

Not again.
Not now.
Not ever.

Good morning, Monday.
I hear you have some challenges for me.
Okay . . .
Bring it!.
I swear that I’m ready.
I may not like what I see all the time.
But I’ll tell you right now, I’ll never run away again.

I swear . . .
It’s like I said, the answer to the question is simple.

What are you going to do when you get knocked backwards?
Me?
I’m going to move forward, of course.
What else is there to do?
Die?
No.
No thank you.
That’s not for me.
Not on my watch.