Have you ever been in stop traffic and really need to get somewhere? You left 10 minutes early and anticipated on speeding a bit and getting there on time if not early, then boom road contraction and you're going 5mph. You keep checking your clock and you literally feel every single second that passes. Welcome to the inside of my brain. Pressure, rushing, worrying. This is by far my most fatal flaw. I don't really have a problem living in the past but I do have a problem with living in the future. Anxiety is my middle name. I'm learning to cope and most days I'm better than I once was but it does flare up on occasion. I spent months feeling like I was under serious pressure because I think about things differently than most. For example, if something can be done today it shouldn't be pushed off until tomorrow so I felt all my life goals need to be happening right now. HELLO LYS YOU ARE NOT EVEN 18 YET GIRL. It's a proactive thought process yes, but soon backfires. As you know, that can't actually happen so the weight on my shoulders was just tremendous...and for no good reason.
I am wired to feel that every single day is my last. I wanted to live every single moment fully, because we aren't guaranteed the next one. It took lots of thought and practice for me to literally come back to moment I am in and embrace it. Time is one thing that goes on forever and I realized me stressing myself out wasn't going to speed time up it just made it more difficult to go through.
Patience. Patience. Patience. Great things take time. Rome was not built in a day. If you want to be great you have to press through the lows, engulf yourself in the highs and just keep moving forward. Whether you're talking fitness, career, family, whatever, trying to better something is 9/10 times never immediate. It's trial and error. The process should not feel dreadful, it should feel like a personal adventure. It should get you in touch with yourself. It should be you vs. you. It should be motivation.
If you are not seeing the results you aimed for, then keep going. This separates the unsuccessful from successful. This makes you a champion. When people don't see immediate change it is so very easy to throw in the towel and say well its not working so I can give up because I was getting the same results as doing nothing before. WRONG, often times people give up right before things were going to take off. The thing most fail to realize is that time is still going to move forward whether or not you continue your path to your goal...so why give up? Quitting is always be an option, so why don't you keep going for once and a bit longer than the last time? Keep trying, keep pushing the button on your dreams. Be persistent in the moment you are in, make that moment rollover to the next and soon the future is the present and you have succeeded.
Stay humble when you experience what you have been working towards but remember clap for your damn self. Remember to be proud of taking a leap of faith into becoming your best self. This takes courage most people go through their whole lives without having. Do not be ashamed of who you are and the flaws you possess. They make you, you! The most beautiful part of life is that you truly can be whatever you want to be if you have enough faith to start breaking the stereotypes and guidelines. If you can be brave enough to make the choice to be different, do it. Do things that you feel light your soul on fire. You have a must and should direction in life. The should is a prewritten outline of how your life should go. The must is what tugs on your heart strings and scares you. It's your biggest life goals, who you truly want/need to be. Follow your must, risk everything to get everything.
So take a second to read my words, then pause. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Be here. Be in this moment. Refocus on where you want to be and what you can do today to get you a little step closer to being a better friend, child, parent, athlete, etc. Let go of the pressure and it having to be now, you have time. Not everything needs to happen today. And let go of regrets so that you don't waste the now inside of the then. You can not worry away the dark times of your life. And you can't speed time up to get where you aspire to be.
What you have is now. So how are you going to spend it?
