The only way you won’t fall down in life is if you are not moving forward.
Everyone who is striving in any way at anything will have times of disappointment, excessive struggle, and feelings like they are a failure. It is simply a rite of passage for success. You cannot experience the joy of triumph without experiencing the times of difficulty. In truth, it is how you deal with the times of challenge that determine whether or not you will ever get to the triumph. The people who don’t triumph are the ones who quit. They don’t pick themselves up when they fall. They give up. The ones that DO triumph, get off the floor and come back even harder. This is easier said than done, because of the emotions that are involved….feeling bad about ourselves…makes us weak and powerless….we have to get up anyway…and as I like to say “Act our way into a new way of feeling.” This passage below is worth cutting and pasting into a note for yourself.
This comes from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. You might know of him through his book “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Dr. Peale, who died in 1993 at the age of 95, wrote 46 books, was the minister at the historic Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, and founded Guideposts magazine, among many other accomplishments.
This is a brief passage from his book “In God We Trust” where he is speaking to a man who is very down on himself because he has yet to reach his goals.
“When you let disappointment get you down, you just make things that much worse for yourself. I suggest a series of steps to follow.
1. Stop putting yourself down. There is a lot that is right in you. You have the same capacity you had before. Clean your mind of your failures and mistakes and start respecting yourself.
2. Stop the self-pity.Start thinking of what you have left, instead of dwelling on what you have lost.
3. Stop thinking about yourself all the time.You will not have a continuing flow of abundance, if your thought is only for yourself.
4. As Goethe said “He who has a firm will molds the world to himself.” Almighty God put a tough thing into human beings called will. Use it.
5. Have a goal and put a timetable on it.
6. Last, but not least (in fact it should be first): Commit your life to Jesus and then , every morning and every night, say aloud these wonderful words: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
I can tell you first hand that Dr. Peale’s writings were a very strong and positive influence on me…and I still read cards that include number 6, every day. I hope you find this helpful in your quest!
