Change and Challenges: Inspiration for February

Hello friends! It's the first day of a new month and I thought of you. To some, the motivation that the new year had brought may have already faded away. Others may just be waiting for a nudge in the right direction. You may be feeling a little bit of both, don't worry. I got all of you covered.

Let me start this post off with this little slap of reality:

"I thought you were here to cheer me up, Gail?"

Well, I want you to take comfort in the truth. It may not always be pretty, but you can rest that it will not mislead you. When you decide to tread the path to greatness, accept that you have to compete to stay there. I personally think that the essence of competition should be to step your game up, to reach great heights that you've never been able to before. Man survived up to this time amid the threats to his existence because he was fit. He fought for his survival. We survived because we rose to the competition. This isn't to say that we won't help other people along the way. Helping other people when they need you is also a way of ensuring the survival of our species. This also isn't saying that greatness is all there ever is to life, there certainly are other important things that we should concern ourselves about. Just that, when you decide that being great is the only option that you have, know that when you encounter difficulties, they are tests that you have to surpass in order to be great.

"Gail, I don't want to be great. I shudder at the thought of challenges."

Well,

Whether we like it or not, we don't always get to choose the challenges that we face in life. Battles may arise in forms that you never expected: health and financial problems to name a few. But remember this, you have the power to decide to give the challenge a fair fight. Some challenges deserve to be fought for. When they involve people or things important to you, by all means, fight the crap out of them. You will never know how strong you really are unless you're fighting for what means the most to you.

"But Gail, my strength is finite."

Of course, you'll get weary especially in the middle of your journey. Remember that

Set your mind to the end that you wish to achieve. Things may start out all good in the beginning but pretty soon, they'll get ugly. Just because things aren't looking good, it doesn't necessarily follow that you should quit. You can always choose to believe that the ugliness is all part of the process. Nobody really knows when the end of their journeys are. But somehow, almost everyone agrees that the end will be worth it. Believing this won't guarantee that you will get what you want. What it does is help you weather through the difficulties. Nobody ever reached their destinations by stopping permanently in the middle of the voyage, right?

"I don't even have the energy to think positively, Gail."

Then, just keep this in mind

You get to work late, forgot to brush your teeth, wore the wrong outfit... You try your luck out again the next day to make sure everything's perfect. But it doesn't. You look forward to the next day, then the next, then... you don't even want to get up anymore. That's okay. Days will always pass, they end. There really are some days when the only work that you can do is the bare minimum. Just do it. You don't need to have a reason to love your family everyday, right? They can still screw up and you have no choice but to go on and be there for them. The same goes for living your life. You don't need to have a reason to live it everyday, sometimes you just have to go through with it.

"You're making me all confused, Gail. You started with an unsettling thought, then you lift my spirits up, then you wanted me to hope only to bring me back to where I started?"

Easy with the accusations, now. My friend, that is how it goes - we all go through the peaks and troughs. One moment, life takes us to the highs we've always wanted to reach. The next, it drops us to the lowest of lows. These can even happen so fast that you can't keep up with them anymore. During these times, you will find it helpful to

Because no matter how big or small you've become, they will always bloom - that's their job. And sometimes, they wither too.

The highs and lows might confuse you, but I'm always here rooting for you;
@thegaillery

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_{All the photos and words were edited by @thegaillery for the purpose of this post. Original background images are from image 1 source, image 2 source, image 3 source, image 4 source & image 5 source.}