Perseverance Pays Off

Once a week, I want to offer you 4 gifts: 1 image, 1 quote, 1 idea, and 1 thing you might want to try, in hopes that these will encourage and inspire you in some small way.

Here is your 11:11 for today.

ONE IMAGE

ONE QUOTE

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.
_{― Anne Lamott (b. 1954) Author, Political Activist}

ONE IDEA

That quote reads a lot like what I was saying to myself while clawing my way up the mountain that hot August day.

It was day one of a trek through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our goal was to hike 72 miles, taking eight days and following the Appalachian Trail through the park, from the northern tip to it’s southern end.

Even though I was young back then, and in decent shape, that first day was rough. It was considerably steeper – way harder – than I’d expected, and I wasn’t at all sure I could do what I’d set out to do.

I shared that story (and a bit more) on a Facebook Live earlier this week. If you’d like to hear how it turned out, just click here.

Backpacking taught me a lot about perseverance. It’s amazing, really, how much we can accomplish and how far we can go, by simply putting one foot in front of the other.

Even when we don’t feel like it.
Even when the path is steep and the way is hard.
Even when the trail seems to wind on forever.
Even when we worry that we’ll never reach the end.

Because we will, of course. And the view will be worth it.
Always is.

ONE THING to TRY

What have you been wanting to do that just feels like it’s too hard, too big, too brave, too much? What would you (really) want to do if you dared?

What would one step forward on that goal, that intention look like? One. Tiny. Step.

Could you do that today? Or this weekend?

Try it. See what happens. Hit reply and tell me about it.

And be well,