Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Persistence

Tags

Australia, K.M. Allan, Love, passion, Persistence, Struggle, Writer

I recently read a blog posting my friend in Australia wrote. In a nutshell, she did some edits on her manuscript, sent it out to her readers, and discovered she did not fix any of the problems they identified earlier. She simply added more problems.

Have you ever had something like that happen? It’s at these times when many would just throw up their arms, have a temper tantrum, and quit. This is where persistence comes in.

Persistence means we do not quit. We keep pushing forward. We continue to move forward, despite the difficulties.

Many of you have read my thoughts on giving up on goals we have to struggle to do, but here’s the caveat–even the things we love to do and focus on can cause frustration or problems. You need this love or passion for a thing to push through these hard times. If you have to fight against yourself every time you have to do something you’ve set a goal for, stop doing that goal. You see?

Anyway, my author friend in Australia loves what she does, and has the ability to push through these tough times, because of that love. I bet if she really didn’t enjoy writing or working on this book project, this latest round of feedback would have caused her to quit. This is the best example I can give about loving what you do, and letting go of things that you thought you loved, but discovered weren’t your cup of tea. (Are you tired of all my trite expressions yet? HA!)

We got our first snow in Michigan. Wow, was it beautiful! My sister came in for Thanksgiving, and it was great. Good conversations, plenty of movie watching, and great food, courtesy Mom and her. We had a smoked turkey this year. Have you ever had one of those? Smoked turkey is delicious, and makes one hell of a sandwich!

Well, that’s all I got for today, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Frederick Douglass

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Abolition, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Human Rights, Juneteenth, Oratory, Slavery, Struggle

Photo Credit: George Kendall Warren – This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 558770.

In light of Juneteenth’s national recognition this month, here are some quotes from Frederick Douglass.

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Frederick Douglass

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Frederick Douglass

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

Frederick Douglass

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

Frederick Douglass

If you’d like to learn more about Frederick Douglass, check out his Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

Have a great Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – The Struggle

Tags

Balance, Persistence, Planning, Pursuing, Stagnating, Struggle, Ups and downs

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

What motivates you to move forward?

This is an important question to ask if you feel stuck, goalless, or just feeling like your spinning your wheels. I have found that two things happen that can cause us to lose track of where we are and what we want—good things and bad things.

Good things are the things that make us feel like we’ve made it. We’re exuberant, we’re calm and collected, we get a sense of confidence. People also tend to slack off during these periods, at least I do. Bad things are those things that cause us to feel bad, feel worthless, feel like all we are doing is a waste of time, and so on. These things tend to make us feel like all we are doing is an absolute waste of time.

When we are progressing through life, we will have good times and bad times. How can we continue moving forward despite the good and bad things that are inevitable? Stay balanced. Realize that good and bad are defined by us. Realize that both good times and bad times have a time limit. They will fluctuate between one another. At other times we will be in a balanced state, sort of like an equilibrium between these two extremes. When we are balanced, we tend to stay on track. We have goals. We pursue them. We follow our plans. We aren’t thrown off course.

This is all part of life. We struggle, we make mistakes, we win, and the cycle continues. These are natural rhythms to the ebb and flow of our existence.

When you take on something new, you will make mistakes. You will struggle. You will fight against yourself and reality to achieve what you want.

The mind is designed to work automatically. You do something enough and your mind will automate it. This is good when you are doing positive things that provide value to you. It is not so great when those habits are harmful. Habits are the automatic things your mind will adapt itself to.

The key to building good habits, pursuing meaningful goals, and changing yourself and your environment for the better all require effort, introspection, and asking for help from time to time. The struggle is all part of pursuing the things that are hard, yet good.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Until next time…

Dave