Nothing is more maddening than feeling you like need to accomplish something, but feeling like there’s no way for you to do it. You have to do it, but you can’t. Or you don’t know how. Or you’ve been trying and failing for quite some time and you don’t know what to do. Discouragement doesn’t begin to describe the frustration you are feeling.
I was there once. I needed to figure out how to support a family. I had left engineering and was trying to build a business. I NEEDED to earn money. And I worked my tail off. I was awkward at first, but I kept learning. I kept going back failure after failure. I was in sales, and I needed to make some sales. Over a three year period I went on literally over a hundred sales appointments in three years and closed only 2 small pieces of business. I found a way to sabotage every sale in some way. And I had heard that if I kept getting up off the ground and kept going after I was failing, that I would soon find a way to be successful.
But three years? Thousands of hours spent? Hundreds of appointments? Thousands of dollars? No money? In three years? I felt insane. How was I ever going to be successful? Those were my darkest days. Those were the days I had no hope. It was in those days I began writing encouragement poems — mostly to myself. Motivational phrases and sayings hardly motivated me. I would hear love words from people and receive their support. It helped me maintain my sanity while I moved through that time.
Words of encouragement will always remind you of the truth, no matter how much feelings of despair swirl around you. No matter how much impossibility looms. No matter how hopeless you feel or how empty you soul remains. Encouragement reminds you that there is always hope. Encouragement is the spirit of God whispering to your heart to hold on just a bit longer. Encouragement reminds you that everything is already OK and will be OK. Encouragement helps you to pull through when you don’t think you can. Encouragement doesn’t leave you hanging. Encouragement doesn’t leave you without at least the first step you can take to pull yourself out of the hole. Encouragement reminds you to open your heart and be willing one more time because your willingness is the key.
Even if you can’t believe, all you need is a desire to believe, only as big as a mustard seed. That desires is all you need because it will take root inside you and begin to grow bit by bit. And with that desire you will make your way out. It may not happen over night. It didn’t for me, but I found my way out. And it didn’t even involve earning that much more money for a while.
