This is one of the most important lessons I have learned about life. My life.
Keep going. When you feel like you have nothing left, rest, regroup and move forward. Our greatest accomplishments happen over time. The biggest challenge is that we can’t see how much we are accomplishing while we are in the midst of the accomplishment. We get tired, we get bored, we get frustrated and we wonder when whatever it is we are doing is going to pay off? It applies to every challenging part of our lives and everything that has a big payoff.
Relationships. How much time, effort, compromise, tears, frustration, love, intimacy, conflict can we handle? What starts as bliss often turns into the marathon that is growing to be a good partner. Then we look back and we have been together for 20 years.
Sports. Countless hours of practice, teams, leagues, competitions. Wins and losses, good and bad coaches, teammates we love and those we hate. And then we reach our last game ever and we look back at how important our sport was in our life.
Work. We strive to be a success. We feel like we are on the cusp of it. One more year, one more cap raise, one more sales cycle, one more promotion. And then we realize we have been at it for 20 years, we have mastered the field and what we thought would happen in the first five is now paying off.
Parenting. They are our bundle of joy. And then the crying and the diapers and the temper tantrums and the accidents, and the defiance, and the grades, and the dating, and the driving, and the heartbreaks, and the distancing from us all happen. And there are so many moments of joy, but also many periods of frustration and sorrow. Then they leave on their own and thank you for raising them well.
The most amazing thing about our biggest accomplishments is that if we just keep going, there is always a point at which, a point that we can’t control, a point where we poke our head up, look back and say “I did it”. So keep going. If you do, you will accomplish amazing things.