the thing about striving.

Confession time. For most of today, I found myself in a constant state of striving too much. I spent hours wracking my brain for how I can make things in my life better – GML, FreelyBe, my apartment, my relationships, dream endeavors, my finances…

…yeah. It was exhausting.

Naturally all of that striving led to comparing myself to others, and before I knew it I had make-believe competitions going on in my head. I know, I’m crazy. I told you this was a confession!

I don’t know about you, but this is something I struggle with way more than I’d like to, and way more than I should. I often just accept over-striving as normal a part of life, and I let it run its course until it goes away. But today, I remembered this image I repinned this very morning:

And then it hit me. Everything I was striving for – the things consuming my mind –was driven by negativity. As much as I thought these were positive things that would improve my life, what I was believing wasn’t even based on the truth. Instead it was based on speculation, fear, and worry. The thing about over-striving is that it rarely gets you what you actually want. And if it does, you’ll probably be too bruised and beaten to actually enjoy it.

I’m not saying that all striving is bad. I think it’s crucial to have goals and dreams and to work for them. In fact, none of the things I was striving for today were necessarily bad in and of themselves. But I think that it’s important to pay attention to our intentions behind those desires, as they can become quite unhealthy without even realizing it.

So what did I do with my weary mind, full of over-striving buildup? I decided to let it go, and instead grasp onto the truth. I let myself rest. I let my mind rest. I’m trusting that all of those “important” things will get figured out in their due time, and all I have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.

**********

Can you relate to this? What is the truth behind what you are striving for?