Transform Life into a Victory
To transform life into a victory requires that you go where most people would never dare venture. Do you have the courage to do so?
When everything in the world tells you to turn around, should you? Is it wise to go back to where you feel safe and back to that place where you don’t have to expose yourself to discomfort?
To transform life, you must go there.
When the most challenging path turns out to be the one everyone else seems to be avoiding, go there anyway. Usually what makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary tends to be a scary first step that few are willing to take.
To transform life you must ignore conventional pathways.
When other people whisper defeat in the wake of your courage, smile. For you are taking the road that will expand your mind and open your heart. Few will experience or be brave enough to know this freedom intimately. One can’t experience the gifts of freedom and surprises if not willing to let go of circumstance and deeply embedded philosophies that hold them back.
So when they laugh at your attempts, go there anyway.
Stand with your head high and your chest out, ready for what life has in store for you once you go past the safety zone and into that place where true curiosity meets up with opportunity. You can’t go through a mountain on wishful thinking. You must be willing to climb, to step on unsettled ground, to risk comfort and all you’ve ever known to get to the top and see all that life has waiting for you.
So, when others pull you back, go there anyway.
When you get to that point, past that mountain peak and at the base of a new path that appears closed, you must keep your wits and think outside the norm. When the voices of those you love beg you to turn around and abandon your pursuit to rejoin them back in the safety zone, you have to remind yourself you are in it 100 percent. You are set to transform life.
Make no mistake…
Your legs will tire, your lungs will burn, but rest assure, you’re entire being will break if you ignore that which is calling for you. When your body hurts and your brain tells you enough is enough, go there anyway.
When that scared part of your brain screams out for mercy to forfeit the win for the sake of reclaiming your spot in the comfort zone, ignore it. When your doubts assault your momentum in a standoff on the rough path, go there anyway. Be in control of your choices and transform life.
When you feel isolated, like the only person the planet to pursue a goal that others have deemed impossible, remind yourself that anything you do with your humble and gracious heart is possible.
Get rid of your ego…
When your ego demands you listen to it, and holds your intentions in its unforgiving grip of selfish and individualistic ways, gently push it away. Remind it who is in control. The ego only has power when you feed it. So when it begins to groan and moan that it’s hungry, starve it so it can’t disrupt what life has in store for you. It’ll try harder to knock you off your path, go there anyway.
When you’re tired, weak and lonely, and when you’re body cries out for you to stop the marching, the running, and the climbing, transform life by going there anyway.
Be in control of your choices.
When your faith in the process of your journey quits on you mid stride, when it begins to pour and you are cold and feeling ill-prepared, when your feet throb and your eyes blur, go there anyway.
When your original plan to set out on this trek toward purpose begins to downshift to something that resembles more of a threat than a guide, pursue it even more.
When your inner voice takes on the same beat as your naysayers, you need to charge forward to transform life. When your heart begs you to reconsider the very reason you started out on your journey, go there anyway.
When thousands of reminders rain down on you and remind you of everything that could go wrong, choose to wipe them away with all the things that could go right.
Continue the journey…
When the sun stop shining, the air grows colder, the path gets tougher, the echoes beat louder, and the air feels heavier, choose to see everything else that aids your progression instead.
When obstacles flex their mighty hand at you, when gravity weighs you down, and people who once supported you turn away, that’s when you need to kick yourself into overdrive and stay focused. Your head will pound, your heart will hurt, your legs will throb, but your purpose waits on you to join it. It counts on you to stay strong in your passion, will, determination, and faith.
When light turns dark, and summer turns to winter, and brambles twist in front of you, go there anyway. Be in control of your choices.
If…
If you fall, stand and make your mark anyway. If you fail, move forward anyway. If you’re scared, face it anyway.
To evolve, you must continue the journey.
You can’t give up because it’s tough. It’s typically the toughest right before you claim sweet victory. Get comfortable with discomfort. It’s your greatest ally in life. You want to feel alive? Then make the difficult choice to leap into the unknown and go for it.
This is your life. You are the sum of your choices. So make grand choices. Don’t settle for the comfort of allowing others to choose for you. They don’t know what beats in your heart. They don’t know the desires that pool in your mind. They don’t know what you are capable of doing when you meet up with your purpose.
Never back down from your purpose. Go after it with full heart, full passion, and full authority. That is your right. It’s yours and its waiting for you to stop being so afraid to trust in it. Life needs you to get out of your own way and allow it to take you where you belong.
The only way to meet purpose and transform life is to let go of what is familiar and set out on that trek along that challenging road where you will need to say no to other’s ideals of what is right for you.
When they tell you no, go there anyway. Be in control of your choices. And make them grand.
I had no idea how I would go on from there. What I would do with my life. What path to take next. Where I would even find the desire to take the next step towards something different.
I could’ve take that exam again. As a matter of fact, a part of me thought for a moment that maybe I would just have to study harder. But in the time that passed in the days that followed that dreadful day, I knew I didn’t have it in me to retake it. Not because I lacked the ability. And, not because I gave up on a worthy dream. But because in those days that followed, I felt a certain freedom take hold. Like I had shed a heavy wool blanket and could now breathe. Just like the universe had given me permission to exhale.
Reassessing
Did I even want to be a professor at a university? Secondly, did I want to spend my life grading exams and essays written by students? Or was I searching for a way out of the hell job I had? This path offered me that way out. That’s why I chose it.
As the space grew between that exam and my present moment, I began to understand the great gift of failing that exam. Failure can humble a person like nothing else.
Failure is a Good Thing
We’re so programmed in society to believe that failure is a terrible thing, a terrible waste of our efforts and talents. That to fail is the worst thing that can happen and we should avoid it at all costs. Well, what I learned from my experience is that without that failure, I never would’ve found my current path. Actually, I would’ve forced myself onto a path that wasn’t ideal.
I am really happy I failed. For in failing, I succeeded in finding a better path. I love what I do for a career now, and I can’t imagine not having this opportunity. I get to tell stories all day long at a university through videography. You see, I get to hear people’s stories, touching, inspiring stories. Then, I get to create digital stories that bring out the emotions and lessons. I then get to share them with others so they can learn and grow.
Additionally, I get to write novels about characters who learn and grow too. Then, of course, I get to tie in all this technology I’ve learned along the way through this career path to podcasting and blogging. That allows me to further share stories and lessons learned.
Moving Forward
Had I not failed that day under those fluorescent lights and deafening hum, I wouldn’t be me today. I don’t know that I would’ve met the people who inspired me to move towards a career as a novelist, podcaster, and digital storyteller. My experiences would’ve been very different. Start winning, I did. Thanks to failure.
By turning your attention to other things for a while and letting your emotions settle, you’ll come to one of two conclusions. You’ll either come to realize that you need to try that path again because that’s where your passion is rooted. Or, you’ll come to learn that the world has better plans for you on a different path. You’ll start winning either way.
Sometimes it takes moments, days, months, even years to grasp the gift of failure. My hope for you is that if you experience failure, that you see it as a gift. I hope you’ll find the strength inside of yourself to get up, learn from it, and not let it stop you from moving forward. Furthermore, if you remain open, that failure will either reaffirm your passion to succeed at what you just failed at or the courage to try something completely new.
Either way, I hope you may end up on the road that pleases your soul most and serves the world in a better way. I hope you never feel the need to force something into being, but rather win by simply letting go of unnecessary pressure.
As Garth Brooks so eloquently sang, I thank God for unanswered prayers.
Suzie Carr, Author of Amazon #1 Bestselling Sapphic Romance novel, The Curvy Side of Life