Do one thing today, even if it’s something small like washing the dishes or sweeping the floor. – Write Right
When despair comes, the temptation is to burrow beneath the covers. Hibernate. Pretend everything will be all right when you emerge.
Everything will not be all right when you emerge. The despair will still be there, ready to swallow you whole. See its gaping mouth. Feel its quicksand embrace.
Everything will not be all right if you stay where you are, either. Despair will creep up the bedpost, climb into bed, and straddle your chest. You wanted a teddy bear or a pillow or someone’s embrace; you got despair and its companions doubt and discouragement. It’s getting harder to breathe.
Take a breath, a quick one. Launch yourself out of bed and do something. Wash your face. Brush your teeth. Make yourself presentable.
Do the laundry.
Take out the trash.
Wash the dishes.
Dust the furniture.
Wash the floors (or vacuum the carpet).
Go for a run.
Beat on a punching bag.
Read your Bible.
Pray.
Have a good cry.
Do something, anything that gets you away from despair’s constant and clinging presence. Don’t let it win; do one thing. Take a stand. This is war. Declare it.
Need help in the war with doubt, discouragement, and despair? Marshal an army with Write Right’s Emergency Hope Kit, a journal for the writing (and creative) life.
[…] Fight. Grapple your perfectionism into submission. Use a choke hold. An arm bar. Break its ankle. Do what you must. Call in the reinforcements. Overcome the lies with the truth. Shove it away and run for your life. Don’t stay and pretend you can beat it; you know you can’t. Get out of the house. Call a friend. Do something, anything. […]