I almost didn’t post today – I wasn’t sure I had anything to say and wasn’t feeling especially inspired – but when I relaunched the blog a while back I made a commitment to posting every Wednesday and Friday without exception, so I now feel obliged to you, my dear reader, and to myself to keep it up.

Actually, as I sat down to write, I realised just what I should be writing about. You see, life isn’t always plain sailing and sometimes things are just downright shitty1. But there’s always a flip side, you just have to find it.

Rough Week

Truth be told, it’s not been the best of weeks. There are many things that cause us little speed-bumps on our respective journeys through life, some big and some not so much. I feel like I’ve been hit with a fair few of them in the last 7 days and it’s been a struggle.

The worst of it, for me, is the knock in my self-confidence I’ve taken, the fact that I’ve begun to doubt myself and my abilities and achievements.

I know that looking at everything I’ve done is impressive in its own way – just surviving long enough to have a transplant is testament to that – but I’ve had a week of feeling wholly inadequate and unable to justify a lot of what I’ve done or am doing.

Smooth

The thing is, though, even at my lowest point this week (Monday, if you’re interested), I still managed to find something that made me smile; still found that little je ne sais quoi that made the world feel lighter.

And who am I to complain with the blessings I have? A wonderful, loving wife; a caring and compassionate family; a group of people around me to help me believe in better and an outlook on life that never lets me wallow for too long.

Both together

The truth is, we all have to learn to take the rough with the smooth. We all have to accept that things don’t always go as we’d like them to, that we sometimes have to do the things we don’t want to.

But like so many of the people I look up to, I know that the things I face in the next few weeks and months aren’t the be-all and end-all.

The challenges of today are merely the after-dinner tales of tomorrow.

I know that, sooner or later, the jolting ride I’m enjoying at the moment will straighten and flatten itself out and my self-confidence will sky-rocket again.

We all need the occasional bump in the road to remind us how wonderful the journey is when its flat.

Learning to accept the things life throws at you and pick yourself back up again and carry on is one of the most important lessons we can all learn.

The only problem is, our ability to pick ourselves back up and the knowledge that we can do it is one of the most easily forgotten, too.

“It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”
Sylvester Stallone, ROCKY BALBOA

Look around

The next time you hit your lull, you have 3 options:

  1. Dive into your deepest hole and wallow inside your own head.
  2. Stop, look around you and realise all the blessings you have and the little things in your life that you perhaps take for granted and forget just how powerful they are.
  3. Email me and I’ll give you the spark of inspiration, the kick up the arse or the shoulder to cry on (momentarily, before you pick yourself back up) that you need.

We can all fight our own battles, we just need to choose the right ammunition.

*****

I’ve had some great feedback from the eBook I released last Friday (one of my many blessings from this week), which is really heartening. If you’re interested to read it, all you have to do is sign up for the blog newsletter. No spam, no selling, just exclusive SmileThroughIt content direct to you inbox.

  1. if you’ll excuse the language [↩]