In getting from where we are to where we want to be (i.e. achieving our goals and dreams), it can sometimes feel like there is mountain between us. And usually these perceived barriers are enough to stop us from taking the first step.
An alternative approach is to assess the situation in more detail to find other routes. These alternatives may seem like a small hill, or even a straight shot downhill, by comparison.
In the summer of 1995, I landed my first job working at a vegetable farm. It was the only work I could get at age 14 because of child labor laws, which is a bit ironic because I labored a lot to make a below minimum wage salary of $3.50/hour!
Like running a marathon for the first time, completing one's first century is a big milestone for just about any cyclist. However, for me, it went well beyond the mere fact that I hit triple digits on the odometer. Taking on and completing the Red Rocks Century was vindication that I could take on the impossible even after suffering a major setback years earlier.
Before I sustained an injury that required 6 screws in my left foot, I viewed biking merely as a convenient mode of transportation, particularly during the 10 years I lived in Boston because it was far more efficient and affordable than a car. However, the injury severely limited the number of physical activities I could participate in, namely swimming and biking.
Thirty-one million five hundred and thirty six thousand seconds. As of April 7th, 2015 at 2:16am, that is the exact amount of time my daughter Evelyn has been alive on planet earth. Of course most people would use different units of measure (31,536,000 seconds = 365 days = 1 year), but I chose seconds to emphasize just how massive that amount of time should feel. And yet the time has figuratively flown by so quickly that I sit here in shock that her first birthday party has come and gone.
A properly trained adult elephant, despite weighing several tons, can be restrained with nothing more than a single rope. Why? The reality is they have more than enough strength to break free. However, they learned at an early age (when they were smaller and weaker) that they couldn't break free. And as an adult, they still hold onto this restrictive behavioral pattern versus embrace a new, more useful one. In short, these powerful creatures are now exhibiting learned helplessness.
As a writer, one of my biggest mental barriers is the fear of only getting one shot when tackling a particular topic or a theme. I don't know exactly when, where, or why this meme took hold in my psyche, but it's worse than writer's block. If I had to guess, it's probably due to the belief that everything on the web is permanent and I want to always put my best foot forward.
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it... he who doesn't... pays it. ― Albert Einstein
The recommendation to keep a personal journal is becoming fairly common in the self-help, personal development, and related communities. The beauty of this practice, as I've come to learn, is that it prompts one to focus and reflect on a particular segment of time. In today's fast-paced world, days, weeks, months, and even years can pass by so quickly that we might miss and/or forget some of those precious memories and moments that we created and wish to keep with us.
“What happens when you die?”
My friend Rob (a devout Christian) would constantly ask me this and a myriad other challenging questions about the afterlife and God in order to test my atheistic faith. I admired his tenacity, but I was somewhat of a child prodigy in mathematics and science growing up, so I could always logic my way into an irrefutable solution to keep him and the mild discomfort I felt from his questioning at bay.
Here were my goto replies: