When It’s Not Going Well, Go On

I mean, what else are you gonna do? Lie down and wait? That’s a trap. That’s what fear wants you to be: Paralyzed. Staying in place, ruminating, commiserating, thinking about how you landed at rock bottom rather than working on climbing out of it.

In some years, you’ll feel like you can’t do anything wrong. Everyone will praise you at work. Your relationships will thrive. Money will seem to rain from the sky. In others, you won’t be able to catch a break. Your income will get cut in half or go much less far than it used to, your boss will yell at you all the time, and your best friend will move to another country.

No one wants to live through too many of those latter kind of years, but it is those years in which our character forms. “Happiness is good for the body, but sorrow strengthens the spirit,” Bruce Lee once wrote.

When life keeps going sideways, do your best to walk on straight. The wind may sway you from your path, slow you down, or even throw you in a ditch at times — but it still is just the wind, and you’ve got places to be.