You're falling behind. The lists of things you need to get done grow exponentially in size while your motivation is lost in oblivion. You try to find your reason through inspirational Pinterest quotes, expensive planners, and motivational articles, but none of it helps. You need to do more, you aren't doing enough. The world around you is moving, progressing, expanding, and you're a tire stuck in mud, sinking deeper with each attempt to get out.

You don't need motivation. You don't need any more lists, you don't need any more vague quotes of inspiration to call you to action.

We act as though success and motivation are the direct results of our single-handed efforts to achieve them. No one talks about the fact that it's so much more than your willpower and goals. There are thousands of other factors that go into play, but we tend to devalue them and place importance solely on the influence we can extend.

You're not a robot. Try as you might, you can't control every situation in your life. Stuff happens. Life happens. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It's complicated and stressful and unexpected, but life sometimes makes you go the longest way around. That's when you learn the biggest lessons.

Everyone has dark periods. Everyone has moments in life where they feel stagnant and unchanged, so they cower under a cloud of self-pity that seems to grow darker each day. But one day, the rain stops, a rainbow comes out, and you emerge from the battle stronger than ever before.

The reality of life is just that: things suck until they don't anymore.

In life, everyone is handed their own deck of cards. Everyone has unique circumstances. Everyone is on different stages in life. With that in mind, take each piece of advice you get from those around you with a grain of salt. They may empathize with part of your situation, but they will never be able to sympathize with the entire story. So much of human unhappiness stems from the idea that things are not supposed to be the way they are right now. A majority of that notion is derived through comparison. If everyone is on their own journey of individualized hopes and battles, comparison is an inaccurate lens through which we only hurt ourselves.

Another part of unhappiness lies in the belief that if we are not content with the way things are right now, that we possess the control to change them. Ideally, you could just snap your fingers and make things work out. In reality, these situations require patience and time.

You have to put in your best efforts, but surrender yourself to the factor of time. You have to give yourself the permission to let whatever happens next happen. You must allow yourself to be whatever and whoever you are at that place and time, whether it's broken, successful, or anything in between.

You have to grant yourself the permission to be a human being.

Sometimes you can do everything right, but the timing is off. That's not you--it's the timing. We have to learn how to not personalize every little factor in life, and instead attribute it to the situation at hand. Sometimes you can't finish the masterpiece because you haven't fully met the inspiration for it yet. Sometimes you may have to be lonely for a period of time in order to learn the lessons of strength that can only be derived from solitude. Sometimes you can't see the whole picture because you don't know all the factors in play.

Sometimes, the timing just isn't right.

You cannot control your experiences entirely. You just can't. No amount of control, manipulation, and planning is going to cheat this system of life. There are countless factors at play, beyond your wildest imagination. It's time to trust in the magic of life and allow yourself to be in every moment just as you are, and recognize that itself is enough.

If you're stuck in a downwards spiral, recognize that. Stop working tirelessly to achieve something that in turn is making you more miserable. Remind yourself of the things that you love, of the components of your identity that remain constant through both the sunshine and rain.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if you can't see it yet. One day, this moment too will make sense. Until then, permit yourself to be where you are, how you are and who you are in your journey there.