Begin Your Ascension

You know what you need to do in order to reach your goals. You know what you need to do to lose weight and get in better shape. You know what you need to do in order to finish that house project. You know what you need to do to free up some headspace and be less angry. No one is questioning that.

No, we all need help with something else much more difficult. We all need help actually getting ourselves in the mental state to do what we already know needs done. We need help getting started, and then we need help maintaining the course.

First things first. We need to first admit we need that help, and that means exposing some vulnerability. Exposing that vulnerability was one of the bravest and most important things I did in my life. For the longest time, I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t get myself to do the things I already knew needed done.

I knew that I needed more salads and exercise, but for some reason frozen pizzas kept going into my oven. My hand kept reaching for the Doritos bag.

I knew that I should get off social media, because of the poisonous vitriol that I kept taking personal and let consume my mind. So why, in a brief moment of silence and down time in my thoughts did I all of sudden find a smartphone in front of my face scrolling through social media?

I knew that I needed to get studying for the next actuary exam to advance in my career. Yet when the time opened up, I found a bourbon and a leisure read in my hands.

Those who write the best literature on the help we need (say, James Clear, Cal Newport, Daniel Pink, to name a few) will be the first to admit that even they continually need help with this, even with the invaluable tools and methods they already have and practice. I, too, continuously need to reflect on the wisdom I have gained from these great contributors of personal development because I find myself falling a lot.

No Peak

What makes it so hard to get started, and to continue moving upward is when you can see there is no peak. There won’t be an end. We won’t be able to eventually lapse back into our wayward and bad habits at the top since the top doesn’t exist. It helps to understand and accept that going into it. We have an infinite amount of potential improvement in front of us.

Is it time you stop rolling down the hill? Put the breaks on. Become vulnerable, and recognize that you could use some help doing what you know needs done to begin your ascension.

Featured photo by Jackman Chiu on Unsplash