Steps

Some millennials and even older adults are always “hustling”; they’re busy and their day is full but at the end of the day, they feel their day went by without meaning or the intended direction they wanted. Think about how you are scheduling your day. Is it ringing true to your life values and what you want out of the one precious lifetime we each are given? Or does it seem like we accomplishing so much but getting nowhere due to living out someone else’s dreams, societal expectations, peer pressures? Do we want to keep doing this for the rest of our lives? Do we want our eulogy to reflect that? After all, some famous dead people did not give up despite what others around them were saying. 

Abraham Lincoln suffered from bouts of depression or “melancholy” similar to what we might call bipolar depressive disorder nowadays. He was known to lay in bed for weeks with no motivation and then accomplish a lot in very little time with little sleep the following few weeks. He had a failing law business but was able to use his oratory skills to run for the presidency and eventually voice the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet some people thought he wouldn’t make it due to his nervous breakdowns and failed business/ political losses. Now he’s considered by some as one of the best presidents of all time. 

We might feel that at times things have no impact, but breaking it up into smaller steps in your action plans can help. For example, some individuals with depression often feel like they can’t get up in the morning. How do we acquire motivation when we have none? What makes it worthwhile to wake up in the morning? Maybe looking forward to that delicious cup of coffee or aromatic tea in the kitchen is worth living for. Maybe just being able to take care of a pet and give them breakfast, or in some cases, a midday meal is important to many people. Putting hobbies, however small, i.e. writing a short story, cuddling with a favorite book, looking at the sunrise, or cleaning (yes, it’s meditative for some clients!), first thing in the morning helps with motivation. Howard Ashman (he created many of the lyrics including Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast during the Disney Renaissance films) was lying in his deathbed due to suffering from AIDs but was adamant about completing the lyrics for both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Even though he didn’t live to see these films, they are to this day one of the top-rated Disney films of all time. He put his heart into it. Just read some of the song lyrics of Part of your World, Tale as Old as Time, and even Kill the Beast and you can see the raw emotions in these songs. 

Now I’m not saying you have to be like Lincoln or Ashman, but your action steps/mindset are important. I sometimes tell my clients, even if your actions for the day lead to just one person’s happiness or positive difference in your or anyone’s life, that’s a very significant deal! We can’t all be famous but we can make our lives better by LIVING it little by little. 

There was an analogy given once that sums up human living pretty well. Imagine all of us in lifeboats bopping up and down on a sea at nighttime, some on turbulent waves and some on calmer seas. Regardless, we can all see the other lights from millions of boats beside us; even if we are all alone in our boats and it feels that way, sometimes, remember that we’re all in the same ocean.

Here is one of my favorite lego sets that kind of summarizes the message that I hope you, the readers, can take with you- Remember, one “directional” step at a time! You’ll be over the moon eventually; if you don’t try, you’ll never know!