No B.S Friday: Maybe despair is the entry ticket to your dreams.
Sometimes you need to rest in despair.
Now, normally I find myself offering advice like, “take some responsibility for your life and pull your finger out, you pathetic meat-sack of unfulfilled potential.”
And you know. I stand by that. It’s good advice.
But it’s not good advice all the time.
Sometimes we do just need to rest in despair.
Sometimes, you do just need to say, you know what. Today I just can’t do it. I can summon the strength, I can’t muster the resources to meet the world and it cruelty and injustice and day-time television. I just can’t do it.
Sometimes that’s ok. It’s ok to put down your weapons and give yourself a bit of time out.
There’s actually a gift in here.
When you’re in your despair you feel out-gunned. You feel what you’re up against – you can see the obstacles to financial freedom or personal fulfilment or ideal relationships or whatever it is your striving for – you can see the hurdles and you know that you just can’t clear them.
I actually think this is part of the process of taking charge of your life – if you’re not going up against some epic obstacles – if you’re not taking on some epic demons – then are you really pushing yourself hard enough.
If you’re only taking on ankle-high hurdles and weak minor demons, are you really being radical enough?
And if you’re not being radical, what kind of life are you building for yourself? One just a slight notch better than the ordinary?
Is that all that you’re capable of?
No, if you have set your sights correctly, if your courage is matched to your capabilities, then there are going to be times where you feel like you have just bitten off more than you can chew.
It has to be this way.
You have expanded to the edge of your limits, and now its time to take a little breather.
And take the opportunity here to feel into the grief that often rides with sadness.
What is it that these obstacles are preventing you from achieving? What are you missing out on? Let your grief here bring your desire into clearer focus.
It is this clarity of focuse that will become drive in the days to come.
But those days are to come.
For now, it’s ok just to rest in despair.
Just don’t give up. Don’t accept this as your final destination. Don’t quit. Don’t let temporary despair become permanent defeat.
But in the meantime, be gentle with yourself.
A radical life of epic and heroic value was never going to come easy.
Just hand in there.
You can do it, you glorious meat-sack of dream and wonder.
JG.
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