“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus
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“Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you don’t belong.” – N.R. Narayana Murthy

What happens when we fall?  Think of the moments when you were 6, and you fell off your bike and skinned your knee.  Think of the moment when you were running, your feet got tangled, and you tripped, tearing up your hands from trying to catch yourself.  We sat down and wondered, ‘Why me?’.  ‘Why does this always happen to me?’, ‘Stupid bike. ’  Now imagine us having the attitude about falling that first time and saying, ‘Well, now I only have 5 more times of falling before I learn better’.  We become better at falling and recovering. 

​ We could take the attitude of throwing our bike away and saying, ‘I will never touch that bike again’.  We avoid everything and anything that has caused us pain.  If this were true, we would never have learned to walk.  We would still be crawling on our hands and knees, as we did when we were 1.  Imagine driving to a grocery store at 45, crawling out of the car, crawling into a grocery store, grabbing one of those motorized shopping carts, and then crawling our groceries back into the house.

With every fall, there are consequences; we get to choose those consequences.  Do we pout, do we laugh, do we get angry, do we learn, do we become small, do we grow?

Growth rarely feels comfortable. But gratitude allows you to see pain as direction — not punishment.  Thank your challenges, for showing you what can no longer stay the same.  You are not being broken. You are being reshaped.

My life’s experiences are as unique as a finger print.  Everyone has a finger print, but no ones’ prints are the same.

We need to set a bar for our level of accomplishments. 

​We want to set it high so that we are accomplishing great things, we are accomplishing more than we did yesterday, we are accomplishing above our current potential.  It is called the, “The Law Of The Lid”.  We are only as good as the lid we place on ourselves each day.  We can rise above it unless we study more, educate more, and put ourselves out in the real world, more.  Besides our lack of ambition to become more, there is a problem that occurs when we compare our successes to others. 

How do you view the paths of others?  Do you see their lives and only their wins, their milestones, their smiles.  Now see your own path, different but just as worthy.  Comparison is the thief of gratitude. It makes you forget how far you’ve come.

Your road is yours for a reason — it’s shaping you in ways no one else could understand. 

When you look at others successes, catch yourself comparing, tell yourself: “Their path isn’t mine.” “My accumulated struggles have been unique to me, Then my successes are also unique to me”.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

The thought of giving up has never been an emotional response that didn’t have the sole purpose of giving up just to give up.  There has always been a source for that emotional response, such as fear.  You were afraid of failing, or looking foolish, being less than, or some type of pain. 

When we first began our workouts, there was physical pain that lasted days from sore muscles.  Did you stop?  Did you see it as an opportunity to strengthen a weakness?  Where would you be if you had given up after one – 45-minute class and walked away to go back to your couch?  Maybe you weren’t seeing the progress you wanted, and you gave up.  Do you give yourself a week or a month to see results, and think I gave it plenty of time: “Moving On”. 

A phrase used as a way of minimizing the sting of giving up too soon is: “That’s not for me”.  There are things in your life you can never give up on or turn away from.  You are creating a lifestyle.  Meaning the things you do, are there for the rest of your life.  Such as working out and brushing your teeth.  You want to do both until such time you don’t have either.

What does it seem like if you quit and then decide to go back and try again?  Do you feel less than or now realize this: every time you’ve started again, you weren’t starting from zero. You were starting from experience.  Persistence is quiet. It’s not loud or flashy. It’s that small whisper that says, “Keep going.”  So today, when you feel the pull to quit, pause. Take one more step forward — no matter how small.  Gratitude lives in that moment — when you stand up again and keep moving.