Keep moving forward

Years ago, I was going through a difficult time. I wanted to keep making progress towards several personal goals that I had set. But circumstances kept changing and I often found myself getting knocked off track.

I would stop and evaluate my life. Each time I figured the best thing to do in that situation was to keep moving forward. I had to keep working. I had to keep taking steps towards my goals.

It was overwhelming to be suddenly thrown for a loop. But I had confidence that I had to keep going. I had to keep making progress.

My family recently watched the movie Frozen 2. I was a bit surprised by some of the adult themes that made it into the movie.

One of the things that the movie addressed was being emotionally stuck. At a point in the movie one of the main characters feels all hope is lost. She doesn’t seem to be able to keep going.

Then she recalls something she heard about being stuck. She decides to take the “right next step.” It is a powerful mantra that gets her moving forward.

She takes a small step. Then she takes another. Soon she is gaining momentum and rushing towards her goals.

Being stuck can be overwhelming. Life hands us all sorts of adversity, sometimes to great degrees.

In these times of stress, we have to simplify. We have to stop trying to do everything. We can’t fix everything. We can’t change everything. But we can take the right next step.

I remember having a difficult time at work when I was younger. I would dread heading to the office on a Monday. To get through it, I would repeat to myself, “Just get to lunch.”

I knew that once I was working through the problems I would feel better. The trick to get to lunch allowed me to ease into the week and the inevitable problems. But after a couple hours in that environment the stress would decrease. I would be focused on solutions.

With the pace of the world changing, it can be easy to feel off-course. It can be easy to be overwhelmed. The best thing to do is to simply keep moving forward. Take that next right step.