I started drawing simple doodles about the dating woes, scary ambiguity, and ups and downs of life as a twenty-something at 22 years old after graduating college. Two years after that I was freelancing on the side of my barista gig, had just started dating the love of my life, and I had really affordable rent at the time, so I decided to take my freelance art business full-time. These last 4 years have been full of triumphs, failures, life milestones, trials and errors, loss, health struggles, and consequently a lot of growth. My mom’s always told me that each thing you go through is a gift that makes you more empathetic and understanding of someone else in the future. These days, we’ll laugh and I’ll yell to the universe, “Give me a break, I’m empathetic enough already!” But the reality is, I really am grateful for what we’ve gone through, because I feel like it's given me authority when I say “Keep Going”. If life had only been easy breezy where I was an overnight success six years ago and I’ve just been laying on a beach with margaritas and a paintbrush, it might be easy to discount my encouragement. But no no, thanks to life, I can say with conviction, experience, and insight to keep trekking the path that lights you up.
I’ve learned that the most vital mental exercise that helps me keep a spirit of never-giving-up is taking agency over my thoughts. So what does that mean? Well, feelings are deceptive little buggers. Feelings creep in, and if you’re a human that is pumped with more than your share of emotions, feelings stomp in with a fervor.
“Fee-fi-fo-fum, your life is hard and you is dumb.”
Taking agency is recognizing that you have the power to stop your negative thoughts prompted by less-than-kind feelings and flip the script.
“Fee-fi-fo-NO, I’m thankful for life and have room to grow!”
Just like your physical body can get stuck in counter-productive patterns (or habits) like procrastinating, eating ice cream every time you’re remotely sad (huh, you talkin’ to me?), or doing a grumpy dance in the face of every little inconvenience, the mind can get stuck in counter-productive patterns (or habits) too. It takes practice, like anything, but you have the ability in you to choose what you think. You have the power and choice to stop negative thoughts in their tracks even when it’d feel good in the now to ponder on how much something sucks. In the long run, that immediate relief doesn’t help move you forward like a flip-of-the script does.
I believe this is one of the greatest skills to hone in order to not just tell yourself to ‘Keep Going’ but to feel the fire in your belly and soul to keep at it (‘it’ being whatever you’re aiming for in life).
One of my personal negative thought patterns is to be very hard on myself and feel like a failure if I haven’t actualized my goals yet, especially as a working artist. But I’m learning to stop that type of thinking. Not only will I trust that I’ll achieve what I desire if I keep at it, be consistent, and try new ways to approach it, I also know that I’d rather read a book about someone who dedicated their life to their passion, loved what they did, had integrity and positivity in set-backs, and was kind and loving to the world. Even if the twist at the end of the book was redefining success altogether (which I do think is important by the way!), that would be a more inspiring story than the person who cried into their ice cream feeling like a failure and decided to give up their dream because it hurt too much to keep going. Don’t let the perceived-failures have the power to dampen your spirit. Take agency over that thought pattern and reconstruct what it means to you – I’m thankful to have tried that avenue and am looking forward to trying something new as I continue onward.
If you have something that you’ve been working hard at, don’t lose heart. Claim your power over your own thoughts, ignite that fire in your heart every day, and keep going. Just like reaching the top of a mountain after a strenuous hike, the view, the journey, and the heightened perspective is all worth it.
