The ups and downs; the round and rounds. That rhymes, guys. That rhymes and you know it rhymes. But sometimes – the ups and downs – they just freaking SUCK.
When you’re trying to improve or change anything in life it’s important to remember it’s a journey. It’s a process. Something with no true or real end, despite your massive desire of the opposite. So what does this all mean…???
It means that journeys are long, and hard, and sometimes really lame, and sometimes the most fun thing of all time too. But they’re damn maddening mostly. Cause you just wish things would go smoothly, and it gets you so frustrated you just wanna go out and kick a field of tulips. Maybe. I don’t know your style, and I don’t know where I was going with that either…
Because in the midst of that journey – as you may be now – each up and down seems so violent, and every period of stagnation feels like the end of all progress, if not total regression.
As if yesterday you were good, you were cool, you were ON, and today you’re a loser or something.
I’ve been taught to believe, though, that journeys are not linear things; that in learning ANYTHING there are periods of often rapid breakthroughs, and then much longer periods of plateaus.
But really this isn’t right either. Journeys aren’t that clean. They’re actually pretty freaking messy. It’s a million forwards and backs, left and rights, ups and downs, and when you live them – IN THEM – it’s hard to see the big picture, because you LIVE in the small picture.
And in that picture the small changes seem huge, the small plateau seems like an endless plain, and your vision never reaches the horizon. The small things just hurt more, and the actual improvements often go unnoticed, because everything seems so near, because everything is so NOW.
But at those times and those days you feel as if things haven’t improved as you PLANNED they’d improve, it’s important to remember that so long as you are trying, so long as you are taking action and putting yourself on the line, you ARE getting better. You’re improvement is inevitable, though the fruit of that effort (of which you have NO control) will wax and wane.
That’s the problem, though. When you live in the small picture and see only what happens then and there, you are somewhat blind to the most subtle ways you are and HAVE become better. But you have to trust that you are doing as you need to do, and so long as that is true, you WILL reach your goals, because you ARE improving.
What helps me most is this single thought: that no matter how it may seem at that time, I’d much rather be me than any other.
To those who don’t work on themselves – who live each day as they have lived EVERY day, still worrying about this or that, still letting themselves get pissed by this or that – time is their worst enemy. Each day their stagnation becomes more cemented, the hope of their life more faded, their lives more dead. And before they know it their life has passed and they’ve somehow become the boring middle-aged dude or lady at the office, starting the same lame conversations over and over, going home to the family they have nothing in common with, in the home that slowly kills them.
But to those who consciously work on themselves, time IS their best friend. As each day goes by, you ONLY get more wise, more centered, more in line with the person you want to be. And yesterday’s problem is a problem for yesterday, because today you’re better, and tomorrow you’ll be even better.
What do YOU think?
How has your journey been? Do you see the same pattern, or something different? Leave a comment and let me know!!!
As far as Im concerned, my life is passing through a transition period where im putting much effort at not going back to old memories or events that caused a great deal of pain on my being.
For example in School, the biggest losers in the classroom were always egging on me because I didnt fuck shit up the same way most kids usually do. as a matter of fact was the shyest dude on the class.
Ah dude, I know all about that. I was the shyest dude too. In fact, I’d say it’s the thing I’ve put the most time, effort, and resources into fixing. Keep at it, dude. Like the post says: “journeys are hard and long” but you WILL improve.