Your Only Obstacle Is...You

   

As a self-help blogger who prides himself on normally being a positive guy, I'm sometimes embarrassed to put my weaker moments on paper. But I, like anyone else, have those days. You know, those days, where everything seems to be stacking up on you. The more you try to get done, the more work starts to mount. The more you need to do, the more exhaustion starts rearing its ugly head. There isn't enough coffee or candy on the planet to propel you out of your seat to start on task number one.

But here's the thing, it's just a day. You've had days like that before...and you got through them. It seemed like you'd never come out the other side, and now, those stressful moments are just stories that end with "I can't believe I got over that." Life's inherently unfair, and sometimes even unrelenting, but there are lessons and eventual triumphs that come with those impossible days. Most times, that lesson is to believe in yourself just a little more. You're just a little stronger than you think.

 I'm disabled (or maybe just "abled" a bit slower than others) with cerebral palsy, so I travel with Access. For those unfamiliar, Access is a shared-ride cab system for select senior citizens and the slowly "abled" that drives you to where you need to go. I can't count the amount of times that I've slumped into the Access car on a Monday morning, devoid of any energy and feeling like the day ahead weighed ten tons. Then a 90 year old person who can barely walk and needs an apparatus to breathe gets in the car, smiling from ear to ear. They're in pain and need help to achieve the most basic of functions, yet you could never tell by their demeanor. They sit in the car and share stories about their many experiences, about life and love, and suddenly I understand why they smile in spite of their shortcomings. And I understand why they were put in my life on a gloomy Monday.

It's easy to stop. To blame others when things go wrong. To be too tired, too old, too weathered and worn. But some of life's oldest proverbs ring very true. Somebody always has it worse than you, no matter how bad your bubble convinces you that things are. And failure is only failure when you stop trying. So many times that we've failed, it's not that we couldn't do something right, it's the WAY we take the result. We only failed because we let ourselves feel defeated instead of learning something from it, and thirsting to be better.

Your mood, your drive, and the way you perceive your failures...those are the things weighing you down. Those are what keep your mind racing awake at night, and grasp you in a constant loop of stress. You're standing in your own way, choosing to put off tasks or decisions that would make tomorrow so much brighter than today. Today's mountain is tomorrow's conquering story. So take a lesson from those days you thought you could never get through. Believe in yourself just a little bit more. Slowly, work at it. Think about what you've overcome. You're a lot stronger than you think.

-Jason Burke