It’s What You Do Next

Let me start this off with an apology. I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this. I’m sorry to burst your bubble and throw a dose of reality into your day.

But here goes.

Life is hard. And it is usually really, really inconvenient.

Things don’t work out the way you’d hoped. Plans change. It rains when you were planning a picnic. The babysitter cancels. Someone gets sick. The pants you were planning on wearing have a hole or a stain. Your paycheck is delayed a day due to a holiday. The list of inconveniences, obstacles, and troubles that we experience regularly is infinite. And these aren’t even the big ones!

But life isn’t about what you do when things are all going your way. No matter what you see on someone’s social media feed, in a magazine, on TV, or in the movies, life isn’t a montage of perfect moments all lined up leading you towards your effortless happily ever after.

Life is what you are living in the NOW.

Life is made in the moments where you choose how it is you want to live, and is reiforcecd in the moments when you keep choosing it - even when times get hard.

It’s what you choose to do 2 miles in to a 3 mile run when your legs are screaming at you to just stop.

It’s how you respond when you hit every red light when you were already running late.

It’s what you do next after being called out at work for one mistake.

It’s continuing to struggle through the harder class that you know will set you up for the promotion you want.

It is in these moments, when doing what is right, doing what you said or thought you wanted to, becomes hard… where you have a choice. Those are your opportunities to make the real decision - are you who you said you were?

Remember what you said you wanted before you started? Here’s the real question - do you want it enough to overcome the unforeseen obstacle that stands before you now?

Because the truth is, who you are isn’t simply who you say you are. Or what you do when things are easy.

Who you are is what you do when no one else is looking. It’s what you do when it’s inconvenient. It’s how you treat people behind their backs, not just to their faces.

Life is in the uncurated moments. It’s in the struggle and the mess. It’s in the moments when you stand up for what you believe in, even when it feels like you’re standing alone.

Please don’t get me wrong - there are times when the right decision IS to change course. To go around the mountain rather than over it. To realize that maybe the obstacle is there to teach you something you didn’t know you needed to learn. Sometimes the most authentic thing that you can do is to realize that the path you are on isn’t leading to the destination you expected.

It’s not about who you are “supposed” to be. Very few of us, in actuality, are who we thought we were supposed to be. Truly living is about allowing the inevitable growth and change that life throws at us to reinforce in us the pieces that feel like truth, and constantly reminding ourselves that those are the pieces that matters most.

So yes, it’s hard. But you are doing amazing. You are showing the power of being human in a difficult, inconvenient world.