Choose to be a student of life

Choose To Be A Student of Life

Take a child entering into a day care or school setting for the first time, they feel absolutely terrified. For instance taking our 4 year old to his school skills class for the first time, I opened the door to help him out of his seat. He was ready to go to his new school first thing when he woke up. The excitement was un parallel to anything in his life at that point. He wanted his hair spiked, he had to wear his favorite jet shirt, and lets not forget about his shorts with the pockets. He brushed his teeth and did a double take in the mirror. This boy was grabbing Monday by the horns! He was bound and determined to make this day a great day! On the way he talked about his ideas of what was going to take place. He talked about making new friends, playing, and the learning that would happen. He wondered if they would sing songs and do crafts. Well, a short drive and there we were. I get out open the door to help him out and the tears start flowing! He starts saying things like he doesn’t want to go to school, he doesn’t like school, school is stupid….hmmmmm in that moment everything he fantasized about was gone.

I reassured him that school was going to be awesome, and I continued to be firm in that he was going to have fun, make friends, and do crafts. I also let him know that if he felt uncomfortable we could leave.

Why am I going into this? Where is this going? Doesn’t this sort of thing happen in life all the time. Don’t we limit ourselves because of the fear that surrounds change? We fantasize about changing jobs, buying a new house, joining a group, changing relationships, moving away and starting over, or maybe working out. We often times have ideas about how great these changes are going to be and then when it comes down to actually taking the step, we talk ourselves out of it. The irony is that we then surround ourselves with people that feel and do what we do. We then go a step farther to live in this fear by not allowing anyone that does things different in because if we do let someone else in that has a different view point they might open the door that we closed. Sometimes we take the step, and try the change that we want. We get started and then the road gets a little bumpy.

We take these steps to better our situation or our lives, but then as we take that step or try to take that step we figure out quick that the step is a lot higher than we envisioned. Actually where we only saw a step there is actually flights of stairs that need to be climbed. We then decide that this isn’t going to work for us because we envisioned quick painless results and the reality is that nothing good in life comes without great pain.

Here’s a couple of examples: Take motherhood- Before the pregnancy you envision the beauty of it. How cute you are going to look with our little baby bump. The glow that is just going to illuminate your body! You fantasize about after having the baby that you and your baby will just be able to snuggle and you will read books and everything will just feel perfect… Well, the reality is that pregnancy is HARD! Nausea will haunt you, you will feel tired and completely confused because of the changes that your body is going go through. Childbirth with or without pain medicine is hard! It’s exhausting and most women want to give up half way though it because they feel the body will give up on them. Then that sweet bundle of love is placed in your arms and truth is now apparent. We are stronger than we thought possible! The hard work was worth it.

How about a workout program- This will test you physically, mentally, and emotionally and you will want to quit and a lot people will quit, but if you don’t quit the emotional, mental, and physical pain will subside and you will reap the benefits.

This is true in any situation in life. Whatever you are going though I am sure that it is mentally, physically, and emotionally draining, but the key is to keep going! Push through! You are stronger than you think! You are capable of more than know!

Continue to be a student of life! Continue taking those hard steps, continue climbing those stairs. Stop letting fear dictate where you go in life Fear manifests from self doubt. Don’t allow fear to dictate your choices! The fact is that if we allow ourselves to be overcome by fear we won’t be able to accomplish anything. Use fear as a motivator. The unknown is beautiful and change is beautiful! We all fear what we don’t know and that allows us to be stagnant. You can’t achieve a goal being stagnant. You really can’t do life being stagnant.

The roads are paved! This doesn’t mean the journey will be easy it just means it will be worth it!