Itz Holistically Wholesome

Imagine traveling hours to get to a long-awaited vacation destination. After all your hard work and sacrifice to save enough money to treat yourself, it was finally happening. You could not help but smile to yourself as you got closer and closer to “paradise.” Your heart is thudding fast in your chest because of all the excitement that you are experiencing. You tried hard to calm yourself, but you just could not. This was really it! You promised yourself that this was your moment for self-care, and you were going to enjoy every second of it. It was a long road to get to this point in your life. An overwhelming feeling overcame you, and you shed a small tear, not because you were sad but because you were happy. Softly, you said to yourself, “I did it,” and you felt good about yourself. For the remainder of the journey, you thought of all the great things you would do on this trip. You even took a moment to notice how beautiful the world was and thank God for everything He has done.

The GPS interrupted your thought to let you know that you have arrived. You stopped the car to get a glimpse of where you will spend the next couple of days, but something seemed off. You were so lost in your thought that you had not taken the time to read a few signs along the way. What you saw was not what you expected. You frantically checked your GPS only to realize that you had entered the wrong location. You felt your heart sink into your chest, and a wave of disappointment came over you. Before re-entering the correct place, you tried to calm yourself and checked it several times to ensure it was right. You were happy that you were only a little over an hour off course. You reminded yourself that it could be worst, swung the car around, and headed off to paradise. You invested too much into this vacation, and nothing will stop you from having the best time of your life.

Many of us can attest that we have made a few wrong turns in life, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Life is filled with twists and turns, and yes, there are also moments when things seem to go smoothly. Sometimes it even seems like hardship and suffering only follows you and everyone else to appear to be where they want to be in life. You wish that your life was different or that born into a wealthier family. You wonder why you had to be a little bigger or smaller than most and so on. Pretty sure by now you got the point. One may never have the answer to why things are the way they are, and seriously, if we were all the same, how boring life would be. The differences in all of us make life so unforgettable, and it is indeed remarkable. First of all, you have to realize how much of a blessing it is to be alive and that many have not been fortunate enough. You see, once you have life, you can change the things you wish to change. Will it be easy? Yes, in some instances but in others, you will have to fight with everything you have to make it possible. And guess what? You have the will to do so.

Anything that you set out to do in life must have meant something to you in the first place. I really do not know anyone who spent a considerable amount of time doing something for no apparent reason. So if you are fighting for your health, for example, but it seems like you are at a standstill, it is no reason to quit. I have encountered so many setbacks in my life, especially on this Christian-lifestyle journey. There are moments when I thought that I was doing everything right only to discover that that was not so. In other instances, I see little or no results after putting in so much effort. This frustrates me a lot, but I am so determined to be successful on this journey that I can never entertain the idea of quitting.

You see, when you have invested your best resources into making yourself a better and healthier person or to achieve a specific goal, you cannot afford to give up. A glitch in the road is never a reason to quit. On the contrary, these hiccups are what will give us our best testimonies and experiences. So instead of giving up, take the time to learn, re-group, and start again. It is always better to press reset a million times than to give up. It is also dangerous to compare yourself to someone else. Not everyone makes their journey known, just their success. You can never know what another person had to go through to get where they are, and if you should find out, you will realize that your life is not as bad as you thought it was. So DO NOT COMPARE; PERSEVERE!

If you have always wanted to get that degree or that fantastic career you always dreamt of, go for it. If your goal is to shed some weight and lead a healthier lifestyle, do it. If you want to take a dream vacation, work for it; it may take some time to get there. Whatever you want to be or hope to achieve is obtainable as long as you do not quit.

You got this!