Keep Climbing

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” -  Harry S Truman

I think this is the approach I’m going to take with my kids, and I think this is the approach that everyone should take with their own lives. Figure out what it is that you want to do and do it. No excuses. If it takes ten weeks, or ten years…it doesn’t matter. Sometimes we sit around and wish hard for it to be tomorrow, or we wish hard for it to be two months from now, or three years from now. Maybe you’re looking forward to getting married, having a baby, paying off debt, buying a home. Maybe you’ve experienced loss lately, and you’re searching for peace. Maybe you’re just in some kind of stupid slump. Whatever it is…we probably shouldn’t wish so hard to be in that place we’re searching for. Life is always going to be uphill. Did you hear that? It’s ALWAYS uphill. We will always have to fight for what we want and sometimes what we need. When you finally think you’ve reached your goal, there’s only going to be a new one to strive for. And how un-magical would that destination be anyway…if you could just snap your fingers to get there?

Go ahead and cry. Go ahead and stomp your feet. Whine and complain about how life sucks, how you never get your way, how the universe is out to get you. Feel sorry for yourself. Get mad at yourself. Go ahead and bitch.  I do everyday. You don’t have to feel guilty about it either. It’s okay, as long as you do it on the way to where you’re going. It’s okay as long as you come back from it and learn from it.

Okay, now that I’ve convinced myself…did I convince you? I know it’s so cliché…but we have the power. No matter your situation...now matter how hard it seems…no matter how much you don’t want to believe it…at the end of the day you have the power to be your best self. We can’t blame other people. We can’t even blame our situations. You may have a harder road or a longer road than someone you know but that’s just life. Sometimes life is hard and it’s almost always unfair. I get sad sometimes and I wish hard to wake up and be 20 lbs lighter. I wish hard to fast forward a year and start the underwriting program. I wish hard to win the lottery. On a deeper level I wish hard to find peace everyday, I wish hard to find a consistent flow of happiness, I wish hard to better the relationships between me and family or to have the strength to let some of these ties go loose. But what’s with all this wishing? I can do something this very moment to make that goal a little closer.

Don’t like your situation? Then change it. Don’t say, “It’s too hard.” You’ll never make it that way. Seriously! Ten years will go by…then twenty, and you’ll still be saying, “It’s too hard.” So that’s your choice. Stay where you are or move ahead. Accept your life or improve it. Half of life is fate. The other half is up to you and me.

Man, I’ve got to start taking my own advice…