Why Don’t you Just Stop!?! Someone asked me one day, after a particularly long string of obstacles, “Kate, Why don’t you just Stop? At what point will you see it’s too much? No one would blame you for quitting, most people would have quit awhile ago”
I sat in that question for a while, considering it. Are they right? Is there a wall of obstacles being built brick by brick that eventually will be too tall, too deep, too wide to scale? Because so often it did seem like as soon as I got to the top and was ready to climb over it and be on the other side of all the things that were holding me back, another brick would drop. Sometimes several at once. Sometimes those bricks seem to fall directly on me, knocking me back to the ground to start over again.
Have you ever felt that way? Just when you see the other side and feel the strength and courage to conquer the hardships you get hit from behind, above, the side, maybe where you least expect it and once again in the shadow of this seemingly growing, insurmountable, wall.
So I pondered this question about why I don’t just stop while I was still clinging and climbing the wall of obstacles built with bricks made out of medical issues on top of each other, relationship failures, financial struggles, emotional struggles, loss after loss that stood in the path of my goals.
Why don’t I just stop? I could choose another path, pick something easier, something less vulnerable to focus on and maybe a little more stable, safe, and considered the standard. Maybe these goals aren’t meant for me, maybe they are something other people who have less to fight through should go after, or maybe people who are more talented than me, or better connected, or more attractive, more well-spoken, have better grammar… and just well, more everything than me.
I’ve never quite fit in, I’ve always felt a bit on the outside, been more attracted to the path that looks a little different and a little more mysterious than the main road. Perhaps, that means I can’t go after those big goals like everyone else because it’s too challenging to be different and be successful.
But the more I thought about it, the more certain I was in my answer. I don’t stop because I’m not going after goals, or dreams, or wishes. I don’t stop because the path and destination I seek aren’t merely a pretty vision of where I’d like to be, something I can change on a whim to anything that seems a little more realistic. When the path we have chosen is more than that, when it’s the life and purpose that we feel called too, and that we’ve chosen as THE destination, THE journey, THE place we know we were made to add our unique gifts too, than we don’t simply choose another route and we may rest but we know we cannot simply stop.
I’d rather be climbing in the beam of sunlight peeking over the top with hope in my heart and the belief in my soul that my climb is making a difference, than to be sitting at the bottom of the wall in the dark shadow of all the things that could stop me. I would rather be climbing a wall of obstacles knowing that what is on the other side is what is meant for me that to be on an easier path looking over at the path I know I was meant to be on while I conform to what I think the world wants me to do and to be.
Our unique experiences, desires, traits, personalities, beliefs, and even our obstacles are what make us the exact person we are meant to be. The one who can accomplish the life we seek no matter how high the wall sometimes can become. We don’t stop because the bricks aren’t a wall at all, like some believe. We don’t stop because when our goals become more than goals, they become our life’s mission, our purpose, and the calling that no one else can answer in the way our unique inimitable selves can, we see those bricks TRANSFORM INTO A STAIRCASE. That’s when we can use our uniqueness as our superpowers to climb, to hold on, and to become the hero in our life’s journey instead of the person waiting to be rescued.
Why don’t you just stop?!?
Because life keeps moving, bricks will keep falling, and there’s a mission on the other side of this that needs the superpowers that only I can bring. Just like your mission needs you and all the wonderful, unique, and inimitable superpowers that you bring. Turn your wall into a staircase and keep climbing.
To read the inspiring journey of Trent, the new kid at school that learns the things he thinks will never allow him to fit in are actually the greatest superpowers of all. SUPERPOWER available now to preorder, releases AUG 2nd. Meet the class, the team, and the teacher that will remind you exactly how important being different is to unleashing your authentic greatness and overcome self-doubt!
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