How To Keep Going When Your World Falls Down

Just seven days ago, the world fell down for the people in Haiti. Eight people were shot dead in Virginia yesterday. This morning, your coffee machine has stopped working and your partner tells you they’re leaving you for the love of their life in the office. Life can be tragic. But tragedy is relative. How do you cope when your world threatens to fall in around you? How do you keep going when it all gets too much?

Hibernate
When faced with something difficult, be it the stress of an unruly child, a business that isn’t growing despite your best efforts, illness or a broken kettle, the natural reaction for some is to pretend it isn’t happening. As delightful as it can feel to live in a fantasy land, this pleasure is short lived.

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result”
- Mahatma Gandhi

There are times when doing nothing is of value. When crossing a busy road with a child, standing still and waiting for the green man is very valuable. Sometimes it is good to wait. However, if you wait with you child, and wait and wait and wait, what does he learn? Waiting needs always to be followed by action of some kind.

Keep going
How do you keep going when your world falls down? You keep going by keeping on going. There will be times when your ‘keeping on going’ can be nothing more than getting up, washed and dressed. For someone else, ‘keeping on going’ will involve getting the children to school on time before going home to sleep. You can keep on going by smiling at the person who passes you in the street. When your world is that delicate, keeping on going, just one step at a time, is the only option.

But keeping on going, however slowly and cautiously that needs to be, will get you there. You’ll turn around one day and look in wonder at just how far you’ve come.

Be the change you want to see in the world
Your children need to learn to listen better, to tidy up after themselves (so you don’t have to do everything when you’ve already got one hundred and one things on your to-list) and they need to stop bickering. Your partner needs to help you clean the house because it’s really just too much to cope with. Your boss needs to stop passing her gripes on to you.

If this is your world, how can you be the change you want to see? Is that really an option?

Lets see: Your children learn to listen by being listened to. They learn to love and respect each other by being loved and respected. Your partner isn’t a mind reader. If you need help with the house, speak up. Your boss? Talk to her. And as for the children cleaning up after themselves, have you got a magic wand?

Seriously though, as hard as it may be to imagine right now, you can make a difference to your world.

But now it’s over to you. What keeps you going?

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