The Will To Continue Moving Forwards

Life is constantly applying pressure to human beings because we have the capacity to feel. Instead of wishing for an easy life, we need to learn how to deal with the range of human emotions effectively. Part of this entails developing the capacity to continue moving forwards in the midst of emotional intensity.

When we are hurt or in pain, when we doubt ourselves, are overwhelmed, intimidated, or afraid, we must learn to continue moving forwards. We cannot cease moving every time doubt creeps into our minds, or every time we get frustrated, because we won’t get anywhere.

There is always pressure in life. Always obstacles along every meaningful path, and always mental-emotional barriers that must be faced. To continue moving forwards we will learn to channel our emotions – every emotion, all of our pain – into effort. Perhaps as our greatest source of energy, which will fuel our creativity and our work.

The Strength To Take The Next Step

When we are confronted with adversity, which inevitably is emotionally painful, we must learn the strength to take the next step. This is the moment when the hero/heroine is faced with defeat, which appears imminent as their strength, and that of their allies, is failing. Yet they find within themselves the power, courage, and will to stand up one more time.

These moments illustrate to me better than anything else the true capacity, beauty, and worth of a human being. This is when we display the true potential of our race, even if there is nobody there to see it. It exemplifies both what we have the capacity to overcome, and what we have the capacity to achieve.

Intentionally cultivating and choosing this adversity in our lives is how we grow as human beings. No person ever became strong and confident by not facing challenges, by not testing themselves, by not finding a worthy adversary. The greatest heroes take on the most overpowered villains.

In our own lives the adversary doesn’t need to be another person. It can be a goal we have set for ourselves, a dream we have chosen to realize. Though in every case our greatest adversary will be ourselves. Specifically the part of ourselves that doubt our capacity to do something, which aren’t willing to work hard, endure pain and hardship, make sacrifices. For some the adversary will be the faceless they who don’t believe in us who we are going to prove wrong.

Confidence and power arise within an individual in their consistent choice to face difficulty, to pit themselves against adversity. Thus by literally seeking out ways to challenge ourselves, adversity to struggle against, is how we can test our limitations, and learn to continue moving forwards even when we feel pain.

Every action of our lives can test us in just such a fashion. Maintaining a daily training regimen, learning a discipline, art, skill, or successfully meeting the demands of a work or study schedule, are all endeavors that can teach us the will to continue moving forwards. For in everything you do you will meet obstacles. You just have to learn to change your attitude in the moment that you meet obstacles.

In training you will always have days where you lack motivation, just as in learning you will always come across skills or ideas that thwart your every attempt to master them. These are the greatest opportunities to improve yourself and develop the strength to continue moving forwards. This is your moment to look within and find the will to take the next step, a single step forwards, found simply in the choice to attempt what seems impossible for you in that moment.

In these times of intensity, difficulty, and pain, learn to be calm. Learn not to turn away from your task, running wildly for a place to hide as you normally might. Instead, simply take a step back. Take a breath, and gather the force of will you need to face your obstacle head on. Feel determination to complete your task rise up within you, and make up your mind in this moment to stay with this thing for as long as it takes you to accomplish it.

I am not saying to spend the rest of your day focused on this task, to scrap everything, and stress yourself out. Be intelligent. Some things might take months to complete. The strength to continue moving forwards in these circumstances might appear as 30 minutes or an hour each day spent on this piece until you succeed in mastering it. It appears as daily coming back to it, and never giving up. Even if you fail one day, or miss a day of work or training, stand up the next day and try again, and again, until your reach your goal.

Even in art we must dig deep within ourselves to find words, emotion, inspiration, and truth that is powerful enough to be worthy of expressing. We must fight to bring it to the surface, just as we must earn the skills and quality to do so at the level we desire. As we strive against these obstacles within ourselves to realize new levels of being, we will constantly be defeated. This is inevitable. Failure occurs more often than success along all paths of learning, growth, and mastery. So change your mindset on failure. Learn to enjoy this pain, this challenge, and continue moving forwards.

I would be remiss if I didn’t make it clear that obviously in training, work, and art we must listen to our body and intuition. Sometimes we don’t feel engaged because the path we are on or the thing we are trying to do is not who we are. We need sensitivity and subtlety, not a show of force, to determine this. However, I feel this lack of engagement all of the time in things I know are my greatest passions. In these moments willpower, determination, and inner strength are the tools which break us through into engagement, results, and success.

Find the strength in the small ways, and you will gradually learn to apply that strength in the larger ways as well. Seeking and facing adversity intentionally, in your art, training, or work on a daily basis will better equip you to deal with the adversity that life chooses for you.

It will be greater by far than the adversity you set yourself against on a daily basis. But you will be more ready for it because of the work you have done, which has prepared you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually because it has forged character.

Discover A Dream, And Commit To It

Adversity is at the heart of learning anything, the achievement of any dream. It is as if the world sets itself against the dreams of every person to test us, to validate that we are worthy of realizing our ambition. Though more fundamentally the dream itself tests us because it requires that we become better. We must raise our level of skills, knowledge, discipline, creativity, clarity, and so many more small qualities in order to meet the requirements of our ambition.

To continue moving forwards we need a powerful reason. Some dream so powerful that we are willing to search deep within for strength and determination to keep taking steps forward, even under crushing pressure. It’s not a matter of finding work, but finding meaning in what we do. It is not about the achievements or the success, but about self-expression and self-realization. Tangible self-improvement is it’s own reward.

If you attach great meaning to what you do, then your actions matter, at least to you. This is all that people really want. At least one of a mere handful of fundamental desires. Meaning.

We are not on this Earth to mindlessly push through pain for no other reason than because pain exists in our lives. We are here to push through pain for a purpose. To achieve miracles within the context of our own lives, facing all emotion pain and every obstacle, moving through it rather than running away.

If you want to experience this exalted, heroic feeling, then you need purpose in your life. You need meaning, passion, and inspiration. Things so important that you would do anything to bring them to fruition. Work that benefits more than just yourself. That includes others too, so that the bright light at the end of your tunnel illuminates and enriches them once that light dawns within you.

I believe that this strength to continue moving forwards in the midst of adversity brings higher emotional states when our work is for others. When we put ourselves on the line for other people, giving of ourselves to create for others, I believe we can tap into sources of inspiration, motivation, determination, meaning, and emotion superior in every way to those attainable through selfish ambitions.

Realize that the only way to alleviate the suffering in the world, along with the suffering in our lives, is to continue moving forwards in the midst of pain. If we cease moving we become stagnant, and progress is halted. However, if we can learn consistency, learn to shift into and sustain a slower gear, rather than to stop, then eventually we will succeed. Eventually we will create what we sought to create.

We must move through darkness to reach light. If we cease moving forwards in the midst of crushing darkness then we will be consumed by it. Continue moving forwards in the face of adversity, and you will discover true power within yourself.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

Sir Winston Churchill