You Can Do More Than You Believe

I noted that I was going to do this blog post theme a few days ago on social media, but I had a few that I felt was more important to do at that time.  This post is about how you can do more than you believe that you can do.  

I think all of us have had days where we were down on ourselves or felt limited.  I have those days, too.  But, over the decades of my experience, I have seen myself handle things and do things that I did not believe that I was able to do, when there was no other alternative but to do them.  This has caused me to remind myself of that in hard or tiring times.

The other day, I was tired BEFORE I began my run.  I have been training for a 5 mile run that is about a week and a half away at this point.  So, I have been running a lot.  This particular day, I didn't feel that I had the energy to do one mile, let alone more.  But, I remembered the old running saying that the first mile always lies.  What they mean by saying that is that your body will feel that you cannot do the run in the first mile, but after that you find that you can go much further.  Indeed, that day of that run the other day I ended up doing 4 miles and at a pretty good pace, too.

Another example I would give would be my time when I first moved to Florida, after a divorce.   I was on very limited money, but I was determined, as my child was living there.  So, I got a room in a weekly hotel that wasn't even a very good one.  It literally had bars surrounding it for security, and I would hear shots at times in the streets.  I didn't feel safe to be out, after dark.  This may sound odd coming from me, if watch me rave about my time in Florida, but that was just the start.  I worked hard, and I built myself up, day by day, week by week, month by month.  Within 6 months I was in a better place, and within a year or thereabouts, I was making pretty good money, again.  It would go up from there.  But, at the beginning, there were days I had to budget my meals and was doing it all by myself with no family or friends nearby.

Or, I could reference the time that my youngest child was born and due to medical issues with my ex I was pretty much my infant child's only parent for two years, while I was finishing my degree and had to pay bills and do the household needs.  I was getting like 2 hours of sleep a night.  Saying all of that, now, and looking back I wonder how I had the strength to do it all, but I didn't consider that at the time... I just knew I needed to do it.  

So, that is how I want to end this.  I don't know what your challenges are, and I know that you may have some doubts and can only see enough light for the stair step in front of you.  I will just say, take that step.  Then, you can see the next one.  Take it all one day at at time, and before you know it you will be in love with your life, too.