Inspirational Video – Getting Through Tough Times – 2019
There are times when you’re aiming for
something – especially if it’s something new
– when you’re doing the activity you know
you need to do – it appears to go wrong or
you come up against obstacles, setbacks,
resistance. No matter where you’re at,
we all experience that same feeling
that we’ve gotten off track. Things are
going along fine,
or maybe we’re actually experiencing
some advancement, we’re experiencing some
change, and then something will happen
and it’s just like the world has ended. It
feels like whatever we were doing didn’t work.
Or it’s not worth doing, or we’re not
capable. If you imagine you’re in a car,
and you’re driving to a destination.
Whatever it is you want to achieve –
whether that’s happiness, or
finishing your book, or getting fit, or
finishing a project, or getting wealthier,
or improving your business – that’s your
destination. Now, you’re in your car,
you’re driving along the road, and you hit a
storm. Most of us, naturally, stop the car, get out of the car, and bathe in the storm – complaining about the storm.
It’s raining.
I’m cold. I’m fed up. Why doesn’t this rain
stop? And we sit down…
Some of us pitch a tent. We spend some
time, engaging and experiencing the storm.
Instead, don’t get out of the car.
Stay in the car. Recognize: “Okay, this is a storm, but the
whole world isn’t in a storm at the
moment. I will come out of it as long as
I keep moving forward. As long as I keep my
eyes on the road in front of me, rather
than looking at the storm, and examining
the details of it – the whys and the wheres.”
Keep your eyes on the road in front of
you, and keep your mind – your focus – on your
final destination, rather than on the
storm. ‘Cause, as long as you get out of the
car and
engage with the storm, that’s where
you’re gonna stay. So, stay in the car,
keep moving forward. And if you find it
difficult – sometimes it’s really scary, the storm is really frightening – we’re never gonna get out of it
– put some music on, put the
radio on, put an audio book on that’s
inspiring. The equivalent is: When you’re
feeling triggered, or worried, or
despondent, by obstacles and challenges
that come up, or it looks like it’s a
setback watch a comedy video on YouTube,
play some music, listen to inspiring
speakers, watch some TED talks that are
uplifting, do some physical exercise.
Looking for five things to be
grateful for – and, again, you don’t need to
find them, just the decision – making that
choice – to look for five things to be
grateful for (whether you find them or not)
will start to change that chemical state.
Do an activity that you love – a sport, a hobby.
Read something, watch something, watch TV –
as long as it’s uplifting – until you feel
better. And that is the equivalent of
allowing yourself to stay in the car and
keep driving forward, but put the radio on or an audio-book.
Whatever you do, do not stop the car,
and get out of the car, and bathe in the storm.
A lot of times, when we get into that
feeling – like we’ve hit the rain, we’ve hit
that roadblock, we’ve hit that feeling of:
This isn’t going to work – we
automatically think that that’s all
there is. That the rain will never stop.
We’ll never be able to get out of this
situation. There’s just this overall
general sense of hopelessness. Remind
yourself, in that moment, that you
always have a choice. There’s always a
choice, in each and every moment. And that
choice is: What I’m choosing to put my
focus on. So, I can either focus on the
bad, or – if I can’t see the good – I can at least put my
focus on something else that would feel
better, in the moment. You can always
choose, in the moment, where to put your
focus. If you stay focused on the storm,
you’re not going to get to your
destination.
Stay with practicing the fact that you
always have a choice.
