The Importance of Keeping on and Staying Positive
Fly, run, walk or Crawl. The good news is, they all help you move.
Our Desire for Success
Everyone has a deep desire to succeed. This success depends on what each one of us considers as important and seeks to achieve at any point in life. It really can be discouraging when we feel that our efforts to achieve what will make us successful keeps on failing, or moving at a very slow pace.
In order not to give up completely, this big question normally comes to our mind “why should I keep pushing?” Surely reading through this article will give you one more reason to keep on keeping on happily.
Even though this may not be your story, or you may consider it better or worse than what you have to deal with, remember we all have different journeys, but in our different journeys we want the same thing “To Succeed”.
When Everything Seems to go Wrong.
“There are times when everything seems to go right, and times when everything seems to go wrong” - Terence McKenna.
I have and have always had big dreams. Growing up, I was very focused and had my life planned out in steps I was going to take to achieve my goals. One of those steps was to have my bachelor’s at 20 and my master’s 2 years after that.
As faith will have it, instead of a normal 3-year bachelor’s program, I was admitted into a 4-year program. To make up for this, the desire to start my master’s studies immediately after graduating became even stronger. I preferred a 1year master program to make up for the one unplanned year I had spent during my bachelor’s.
This is just to tell you how deeply I took these goals of mine, and how not achieving them felt. Unluckily for me, all the applications I sent out for master studies were either rejected or without a scholarship, so unaffordable. As a result, I was obliged to spend a year home without school.
At this point, I felt like the Favor of God which always was, had left me. For a moment then, I began to feel unlucky and not fairly rewarded for my efforts. I mean, it wasn’t like all those who got admitted had performed better than I did, or worked as much as I did in applying, yet my case was different.
Finding Motivation in Disappointment
You might be thinking I went through this a long time ago. Well, this was at the start of 2018. Thankfully, I come from earnest parents and have watched them stay positive and grow despite their hurdles over the years.
It was drawing from them that I used my disappointments not as a stumbling block, but as a motivating force to achieve the best I could that year while not in school.
Truly “the most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event” – Erich Fromm.
The Importance of Not Giving Up
Still, it wasn’t until at the end of 2018 when I truly learned the importance of keeping on and staying positive. I looked back and realized that I had learned and done so much that year that I doubt if I could have ever done if things had gone according to my plans (one of the things was how to plait, which I now do on some off school days and get paid for).
Since the world didn’t stop revolving, I also understood that there is more to life than our daily worries and troubles, because with or without them, the cycle of life will continue. I have since then become more optimistic and goal getting that even in the most negative situations I find a way to find hope and move on.
I hope that my story whether different from yours or not, helps you to realize that becoming successful isn’t a bed of roses. Sometimes it’s sweet, sometimes it’s bitter, but one thing is sure; as long as you don’t give up and there is life, achieving your goal is paramount.
So even if things are presently not what you hoped it will be, accept the new path and put in your best. Place your trust in God, and because you didn’t give up, you will reach your destination.