Ice And 2

I witnessed a plow driver who had a rage thing going on and was speeding down the icy, snowy road while coming as close as he could to each parked car. I was sitting in one of those cars and was terrified when he came so close to me. The street I live on requires us to remove all vehicles when snow is expected. The snow plows need to be able to do their job without obstacles or hindrances.

Life is like this. We have goals in mind and we want the path to be cleared of all obstacles and hindrances before we even attempt to plow ahead. We will say things like ‘after I clean my house, then I’ll begin that project. I need to have organization before I start’ or we might say something like ‘I need to take care of this government paperwork and that Internet regulation before I get this site up and running’.  Maybe we will say ‘I have to go to school before I can do such and such but I have no money for it’. Or maybe ‘I need a better paying job so I can save money to do that thing’. There are endless scenarios that we see as obstacles to our dreams. Rarely do we even begin to work toward our goals because the roads are not clear and we are afraid we won’t know what to do or believe that everything will fall into place if it’s meant to be. We will always have a choice, we can choose to rage over these things like the plow driver, sink into depression or any number of other emotional responses. 

What I have found that is most important in choosing to work toward my goals are two things, one is learning and applying emotional regulation, the other is making a commitment and sticking with it to actually do the work toward the goal, to begin and persist. 

Remember that these actions will be imperfect in themselves. When things happen that are upsetting to our plans, we may sometimes break down as we are unconsciously accustomed to do. We each have our own reaction. This is why emotional regulation is the central key to going after your dreams. Our dreams take time and patience and other people’s plans and needs will surely become an obstacle or hindrance at some point in time. If we are emotionally regulated most of the time, these occurrences will not stop us. We will more easily keep our commitment and persist toward our goals with patience and clarity.

~Janice M. Burke

Image by Arek Socha