taking the first next step

Do you feel stuck?

That feeling when getting up drains you before your feet touch the ground? Yet we get up, put on armour, go back into the mud, hoping today will be different.

Being stuck often comes with fighting. Fighting to make things work, to make a difference… to hold on for another day in case this time will be when things change.

We are swimming upriver against the current.

It’s easy to get stuck. Often we don't see it coming. Do you know that boiling a frog metaphor? The water slowly gets hotter without our noticing until we’re burning up. It’s a gift and a weakness of being human — our ability to adapt.

We get stuck when we try to adapt to suboptimal conditions. Frogs will not thrive in boiling water.

Sometimes we have to adapt to survive. The world isn’t set up for everyone to shine and adapting is equal to living. And sometimes we adapt because we lost touch with the fact that we are worthy of better.

We underestimate the impact of being stuck. The armour, the daily internal rally to show up, the way it slowly seeps yourself from yourself until you’ve lost who you are and can’t even remember what it is that you want to say yes to.

I’ve seen this so many times in my work that I know — you can find yourself again.

It’s hard to see a roadmap out of the mud when you’re in it. This can become a reason to keep stay put. Sticking to what we know because, at least, we know what stuck is.

What if you didn’t need that roadmap? What if you just needed to know the first next step.

It’s ok if you can’t see beyond your current situation. It’s ok if you don’t know what you want to feel like or the last time you were happy.

Start by taking the first next step.

I’ve seen time and again the power of this small yet important move that ultimately allows for a new way of being.

It can be anything. Something to break the automatic response and help you remember that you are more than a fighter. That you are capable of existing outside the mud — and even, shining.

What’s that first next step for you?

Love,

Urszula