Our interesting journey

Photo: Contributed

The journey to get to where we want to be can be fraught with challenge so enormous that it may seem to be almost impossible. We sometimes really believe that we will not achieve what we hope to achieve.

That thought has the power to stop us in our tracks. Everything begins in the mind and our thoughts have incredible power. We believe and subsequently achieve what we think.

Sometimes our own minds are sabotaging us, due to the power of what we perceive to be real. This perception has been coloured by our life experience.

Perhaps we have learned at the knee of a well intentioned parent who looked at life with skepticism; or perhaps we have had a run of negativity in the things that have or have not happened to us; or perhaps we unknowingly (subliminally) buy into the negative media that surrounds us.

But there is a key to stopping those thoughts, brushing them aside and moving forward. Know that everything is temporary. We can influence the time that we have right now, in this moment but have no control over the future, so it is futile to worry ahead of when things will happen.

'Temporary' can be defined by our own personal measurement of time. Do you notice that when things are going well in your life, time seems to speed up?  Then, when we are being challenged and are feeling stuck, time seems to drag like never before?

A busy challenged brain moves forward with purpose, while a not so busy (and perhaps depressed) brain focuses on ”what isn't” and this adds to the frustration and “grows” the issue that can keep us stuck on the ol' gerbil wheel of our mind.

There will always be issues in our lives that we have no control over, but the one thing that we do have control over is ourselves and how we choose to respond and think about situations and events.

Happiness and satisfaction come with having goals that keep life moving along in a positive direction. Whether our goal is to walk for 15 minutes daily, or to help someone else, or to stop snacking at 7:00 pm every evening, or to finally get to a project we have been procrastinating about, the payoff is the feeling of accomplishment when the goal has been achieved.

It is important to have an achievable realistic goal every day if you feel yourself floundering about emotionally. Personal goals can assist us in sending positive messages to our brain putting us in the driver's seat of our thoughts. This will help us to stay focused on resolution, and keep us moving ahead with some positivity and purpose.

Winston Churchill once said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” He knew that by keeping focused on the end result (the goal) we would eventually come out the other end. Challenges in life are temporary – depending on how we think about them.

If you feel there is a cloud hanging over you every step of the way, know that it is a temporary part of your life's interesting journey.

The great Churchill also said, “Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.”

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.