If you decide to make something, no matter how big or small, you will encounter challenges. You will realize you don’t know enough. You will find you don’t have the time to learn a new technique, read books, talk with people, design a new portfolio, or take an internship. If you still decide to make that something despite all that, you will have a bumpy road. You will wonder why you ever started down the path. You will doubt yourself, and you will become discouraged.
When those things happen, you have one of three choices to make: you can have a pity party; you can choose to be cheerful; or you can rejoice in the successes of others. The first is to be dismissed entirely. It does you no good, and it does the thing you’re trying to build no good. You will get stuck inside your head. You will descend into dark thoughts.
The second is to be attempted. It’s hard, but you can choose cheerfulness even if you don’t feel cheerful. You can act in a certain manner until your mind starts to align. You’ll succeed with this work on some days. On others, you won’t.
On those days, you need to take time to be by yourself. It’s all right and natural to cry. It’s normal to feel angry and frustrated. It’s okay to talk with a close friend and admit your lack of cheer. Doing so is not a sign of weakness but of strength. If you want to travel far down the path you have chosen, you need a band of merry men that will rally to your cause and encourage you when things are bleak.
You also can choose to rejoice in other people’s successes. This choice may be as difficult as the second. It’s easy to fall into a comparison trap when you choose to “cheerlead” others. If you can keep that temptation at bay, you eventually will find that the worry doesn’t occupy your thoughts. It can’t because there is no room for it. You have chosen to focus on others instead of yourself, and this choice brings transformation. Your spirit lightens; the road ahead clears for a few moments; and both give you the strength to continue along the path from there to here.
Image: Loren Kerns (CC BY 2.0)