2 Steps Forward, 5 Steps Back: Don’t Quit
Have you ever felt like no matter how hard you tried, you could never truly propel forward in life?
What if I told you, this could have been the plan for you all along?
Maybe you needed to built up in order to truly accomplish all you desire.
This is something I needed to hear this past weekend as I sat in church listening to our pastor talk about this exact subject.
Psalms 34:19 says, “The righteous person may have many troubles but the Lord delivers him from them all.”
No one said life would be easy. There is nothing saying we won’t endure trials. This does give us the promise that even though we will go through many valleys along the way, we will also be able to prevail.
We must learn how to trust the process. We have to remember that everything we go through allows us to become more well-rounded. It helps us relate to those who need us the most. What we endure makes us who we are. Without trials, we are unable to share wisdom and experiences to those who look up to us. We have to understand that we have been built for this process and that we are going to be able to get through it. No matter where your faith is at this time, just knowing that you don’t have to do it alone is something that has helped me tremendously. The more I began to read scriptures, the more I began to realize the handbook I’d been searching for was right in front of me the entire time.
If you are in a place where every time you go to move forward, you feel like you are being pushed back even further, I want to encourage you today to simply hold on. Hold on to the promise that no matter what, you WILL come out of each season a much better person than you were before. Each day you choose life, you are choosing to allow yourself to be closer to the destiny. Every day you wake up and have breath, you have purpose.
With these key points in mind, keep going. Nothing in this world can take you out more than self-doubt. Don’t doubt in who you are and who you are meant to be. You may just be in a season of growth - mentally, spiritually, and maybe even physically. You may need to re-examine your relationships and figure out who should and maybe shouldn’t be in your life. You may need to pull back on certain things so you can reach higher heights with other things. What you don’t want to do is get so focused on the negatives that they pull you back even further. Those negatives are what take us from going 5 steps back to going 500 steps back. If we keep going backwards, we truly are worse off. But if we can dig deep and learn how to continue what we began and have faith that we are able to do more in life and be more than what we currently are, then we have a future ahead of us that is so bright, no one and no thing can dim it.
Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Many of us, including myself, will switch courses before we are supposed to. We will become afraid of the unknown and change directions before we had the opportunity to overcome whatever it is that is holding us back. We are not “staying with the problem.” We are trying to make our own solutions. We are “fight or flight.”
“The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. The response is triggered by the release of hormones that prepare your body to either stay and deal with a threat or to run away to safety (American Institute of Stress, 2020).
I began learning about this response many years ago during a course on Human Physiology. To put it simply, when our bodies go into “fight or flight,'“ it is due to fear. We won’t continue to pursue things because we are afraid of failure or afraid of being let down. We will run from things that aren’t simple in order to avoid potential let downs. Think about it though. Is this really how we should operate? Wouldn’t it be better if we at least attempt to experience certain things that may just end up being exactly what we needed in our lives at that time?
Yet, instead of possibly encountering more hard times, we shut down. I say we because I do this as well habitually. Nevertheless, awareness is the first step to change. We can’t change anything unless we become aware of it. So today and moving forward, let’s make a commitment to ourselves and learn how to step outside of our comfort zones one day at a time. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not that we will instantly rid ourselves of fear. It’s more about the ability to try things and see where they go rather than quit before we actually begin.
This concept is beneficial in our spirituality, our relationships with others, our businesses, our health, our finances, and anything else we desire. If we are not willing to go through the hard times, it will be really difficult to come out on the other side and be the light for others. It’s time to support, encourage, and empower one another as we continue this thing called life. Keep people around you who will help you. Don’t get down on yourself. You are stronger than you think. One day at a time, one moment at a time, one step at a time. When life pushes you back, it’s OK. Get back up. Be consistent and persistent. If it’s where you are meant to be, it’s where you will be. Don’t give up. Don’t quit.
References
American Institute of Stress. (2020). How the fight or flight response works. Retrieved from https://www.stress.org/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-works.