I have lived in my house for over 5 years now. During that time I have done nothing to improve it. No landscaping, nothing with the interiors, nothing. Realizing this I have decided to improve some things, starting with the outside.
Among some of the improvements I am adding a fence and garden boxes to the back yard. While digging the holes for the fence posts I keep hitting rocks… lots and lots of rocks. The last post hole I dug had a larger rock directly in the middle of where I was digging (see above picture). None of the tools I had – shovel, post hole digger, mattock – could get at the rock. I ended up having to wait a few days to borrow a long pry bar from a friend. Once I got it it still took some work to get it out. All told it took about 2 and a half to 3 hrs to dig a hole I could normally do in 30 minutes. However, I got the hole dug and the post set.
Digging the hole got me thinking about challenges we face in life. There may be times as we work toward a goal that we come across an obstacle right in the middle of it and disrupts our progress. Sometimes, like I did, we have to stop for a moment while we acquire the necessary tools to overcome the obstacle. Maybe you are painting a portrait and you run out of cobalt blue. Perhaps you are working toward a GED and your child has to be hospitalized for a month. Or you might be gearing up for that bucket list vacation and then find out you don’t have enough money just yet. All of them are obstacles that cause delays.
Obstacles come, that’s a matter of fact that we need to just accept. It’s what the obstacles do and how you react to them that we can change. I could have stopped and tried to set the post in a shallow hole. I could have started another hole a foot away. I could have just given up on the idea of a fence all together. None of those were viable alternatives because I knew the goal was obtainable, I just had to readjust and work on it. Though I was initially stuck between a rock and my goal I took a moment to acquire the tools needed and then set to work and finally got the rock out. Now I can continue to build my fence and beyond.
What goal do you have? Have you been working toward it? Have you encountered obstacles yet? How have you reacted to them? In the end it’s not about the obstacle but how you reacted to it, if you proceeded from it. It’s ok to hit obstacles along the way, it’s going to happen. However, it’s not ok to quit. Take a moment to collect yourself, to acquire additional resources if needed, but never, ever stay stuck between the rock and your goal – dig, dig, dig!
Attempt it. Chance it. Try it. Get to It!