Before Arriving to Sticking Through It
It’s a new year. Truthfully, it’s just another year if things haven’t changed much in your life. That is all up to you. You already know this. Even with all the health and financial turbulence, your state of mind and spirit is still in your control. What you must be aware of and be prepared for each day is fundamentally what I believe is essential to sticking it through this year to act upon and make happen what you envision before you even arrive at a point where you are just sticking through it.
Actively prepare.
As my husband’s grandmother would say, “In the time of peace, prepare for war.” While I could see this as a literal statement, there is so much more depth of meaning in such words of wisdom.
Wishful thinking gets stuck in the mind without ever freeing itself from the cell bars we alone have built. This is why dreams are just hopes and aspirations without fruition when no action has taken place to pursue any vision. Planning ahead leads to preparing for what we envision to arrive. While we don’t want to think negatively of the future, as we walk through life’s happenings, any unexpected moments could be addressed with less turbulence and weariness having prepared for all that can be controlled. Plowing the fields and planting the seeds is just the beginning. What to do if a storm were to arrive protects the growth or leads to the rotting of those seeds.
Historically, our ancestors were known to be actively working to survive. For instance, those who lived in areas where winters were harsh knew that before such season, early days started with tilling the land, planting the seeds, irrigating the waters, trimming and pruning the vegetation before even harvesting came into play. Even then, there were to be hopes of having stored enough for the anticipated winter season. When winter arrived, much wood hopefully had been cut for the fire that not only warmed a home, but cooked the food and helped to dry any garments.
Preparation was key for any battles to survive then. Even with technology as the zeitgeist of times now, should we dare not prepare for potential battles to survive the present?
Take care of your body.
Yet another words of wisdom I’ve come across that should seriously be taken as a health forewarn is, “What you do to your body now, you’ll pay for it later.”
While we have no control of tomorrow and how we shall each fare, it doesn’t take a medical genius to understand that your body is essentially a mechanism needing consistent and frequent maintenance to avoid unnecessary reparations. Sticking it through prior to sticking through it suggests knowing what goes in first.
Living a happy life does not mean hazardously living by any means. What one puts into the body won’t just easily escape out. There is a filtration system happening within each of our bodies. If we were to transparently compare our insides, imagine what would be exposed.
While the body works to repair any damages one has inflicted upon it, continuous damage leads to harder abilities and longer times to recover, most especially if the damage repeats within the same area. How you handle your body is just as crucial as how you maintain it. Add amount of sleep and stress level, your body is like a machine that not only has been provided the right essentials to work, but work in the right way at a caliber dependent on your input.
Eat consciously. Sleep sufficiently. Stress necessarily. Stick it through with this idea and sticking through it won’t be as difficult within a body that is able to healthily fight.
One put down, two praises.
It’s all math, really. You add more than you subtract, you will end up on the positive end.
I recall looking in the mirror one day in high school and telling myself I was beautiful. Vein? If you looked past the only vanity mirror we had in this home we resided, perhaps you could understand mental resilience is what I had to raise my spirits. To stick it through in the hopes of eventually making a better life, one has to start acknowledging what good can be found out of any of what one contrarily perceives.
I believe every journey traveled is one more skill added to our repertoire of life. Telling my children that I expected extraordinary results started with my adamant statement that they are extraordinary children. If they were mediocre, I would accept mediocre results. Setting standards for my students to a bar hardly bowing down to anything less follows with my constant remark that it’s because I want them to have a better car, house, and life than me. I laughingly follow that this should not entail I will not be challenging any of them. I’m not done either.
To be constructive comes from the mindset of wanting to construct. Construct what is the preeminent component to understanding the direction one is trying to go. If there is no path of determination, where is one trying to stick it through? One step back, two steps forward leads to the eventuality of arriving.
Race against yourself.
I recall hearing that runners in a race must keep eyes forward in the motion of their body. I’m not sure how much factual grip that has for competitive runners, but I sadly recall thinking this very possibility of causal reasoning when witnessing a sprinter stumble and fall right before touching the finish line. I think, “They looked away!”
Tying in Newton’s 2nd law of motion in physics, I suppose we could very much have some theoretical belief had the body continued to push forward without change, these seconds of shift in motion would not change acceleration.
While it can be understood that we use others as a checkpoint to where we are in comparison, concerning ourselves with what’s around us instead of what is before us or within us only makes sense to be taken as a distraction. After all, an accident has been said to not cause the backup of cars to follow; traffic jams are due to our masochistic inclination to slow down and examine with our eyes what happened. Slowing down within one’s control leads to the fact that the estimated time of arrival to sticking it through has just been prolonged due to such choice.
Take one step at a time.
Live long enough, one may find that some things in life is just best taken through a shortcut route. This is where theme parks can create additional profit because for those who would rather pay more to skip unwanted long lines necessitates the idea of the demand for a “fast pass”.
My husband worked for a family in college mainly to help out and accompany their two adult paraplegic sons. Benefiting from graveyard hours, he would find himself having deep conversations with the parents. He shared with me that while he at first had concerns for asking to marry me at such a young age, the family’s mother was the one to have given him the peace to shed no worries. He was concerned that perhaps I would miss out on things. The mother’s words of wisdom? “Some things she won’t need to go through.”
I may have “jumped the broom” too early, but this does not equally suggest, missed opportunities. I truly believe that it is the character from within to determine how one will face moments of chance and opportunity in life. Being a mother and wife, facing all the challenges that both roles request out of me daily in addition to being a teacher and just a “self”, I can tell you that my favorite gospel song, ”One Day at a Time”, came from understanding that such pacing does not coincide with too much unwanted once arrived. Doing away with the unnecessary provides the opportunity to focus on sticking it through to what IS necessary. The “fast pass” created an investment of time to get to the other side without long lines of getting to the ride. Taking one step at a time suggests being certain of steps taken. Make every step count to stick it through.
Actively prepare. Take care of your body. One put down, two praises. Race against yourself. Take one step at a time.
Whatever you were set out to do. Whatever your destiny. Whatever you push toward and strive for- focus. Stick it through. Once arrived, actively prepare again in how you will maintain fighting the good fight. Keep taking care of your body. Keep telling yourself you can and you will each time you hear you can’t. Don’t worry about where others are- your lane, your focus. And finally, doing away with the unnecessary will help remind you to strengthen the steps you are taking, one step at a time.
Stay determined and focused to stick it through. Once you’ve arrived to the other side, take a breath and smell the flowers. Know that because you stuck it through, you’ve arrived to the part where now, you get to stick through it.
https://youtu.be/1QPIyo9D_WU
