Stumble

There will be moments when you stumble on the path.

The moments where you fall back into old habits, old ways, old vices.  Starting anything new is hard.  Changing your habits from old to new, is even harder.

It doesn’t come naturally.  Doing this new right thing.  Doing this thing that feels bad in the moment, like eating a salad, or working out, or studying for that exam.

You can be hard on your self for falling down on your journey.  The key here is to be smart enough, or experienced enough, to know you’ve just stumbled.  You can get up and get back onto the path.

Take action to make it better.

That is the key.  You will stumble.  You will fall.  You will fail.

Nobody is perfect, but so long as you keep moving forward, you keep being the person you know you can be, you will continue to move forward and be better.

I can tell you from experience I’ve stumbled.  I chose to stop drinking, and had a drink.  I started a new business, and it failed.  More than once.  I’ve invested in companies that immediately dropped in value.

What I’ve found over the years is with experience, eventually, you will have fewer and fewer stumbles and falls.  This happens until you move onto the next level, and grow into something else that’s new.

Then you will stumble and fall again, but those stumbles and falls will be on a different path.  You will be at a different level.

If you take a moment in your life right now, think back a year.  Five years.  Even longer.  What you’ll see is how much farther along on the journey you are, how much higher on the mountain you are, and even when you fall back a bit, you’re still so much farther ahead.

If you stumble today, sure, you’ll lose some of the gains, but still be well ahead of where you were.

Keep moving forward.  Keep progressing.

Always improve and build on the foundation you have to make your life, and the lives of those around you, better.  You’ll never regret it.