How to Keep Going Despite Life’s Never-Ending Challenges
On June 22, 2015, I didn’t know how to keep going. I wrote a lengthy email to the head of the management department at Northern Illinois University’s College of Business. I recently completed an internship with a local chamber of commerce — and I was freaking out. I wrote, “Now that I’ve tasted a bit of the true corporate structure I have a couple concerns.”
Here’s why I was upset, in my own words from then (excuse my poor grammar and word choice. I’ve since learned. Who says ergo?):
1. I Realized the Humanities Don’t Pay the Bills
“I started college thinking I wanted to be a therapist, ergo, tons of psych courses. Then I decided I wanted to start my own non-profit and help the world, but first I needed to understand what was wrong with the world; hence sociology. Now that I’ve tasted the real world I realize the importance of getting a degree that makes money and that keeps you a job. Perhaps more importantly, that gets you a job.”
2. I Would Hate My Life (and Myself) if I Settled for a 9–5
“I wanted to be a real leader in my generation, not just a boss, and not just someone working a 9–5 to support a family thinking back on how I should have done something more with my life…I don’t want to graduate and live an everyday life. I want to graduate and be extraordinary, but it seems so does everyone else….I don’t want to work in the food industry, I don’t want to work in retail, and I don’t want to spend my life knowing my potential is endless and being stuck as a middle manager for some pharmaceutical company making slightly above middle-class income only to get fired to outsourcing “
3. But I Was Afraid Life Would Cause Me Settle
“I know I have the potential to be an effective c-level manager or influential person in the eyes of the public, but I feel like college and the real world is going to crush my twenty year old dreams, and I’ll end up like everyone else-hoping- letting competition crush them and letting their distant dreams fade into what could have been.”
Years later I’m mostly still the same kid. I’m more skilled, but I continue dreaming to make a difference in the world and working hard to ensure that life doesn’t beat out my sense of wonder and possibility. (I’ve had bosses tell me repeatedly that they have a personal mission to beat the idealism out of me.)
Here’s the Skinny on How to Keep Going
I’m sharing this with you because I want you to know that living life to the fullest is a never-ending challenge. It’s hard work to stick to your values, determine the right thing to do for you and for the world, and remain confident.
No one has the balance figured out. Even our idols have faults. Mother Theresa was plagued with doubt and Martin Luther King Jr. was an adulterer. If someone seems to be perfect, you’re seeing an idea of them not the reality (or they’re putting on a show for you.)
There is always room for improvement in your character and your skills. On any given day, you’re going to be kinder, more disciplined, and happier than others.
This is why Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The secret is to just keep going in a state of contentment regarding the progress you’re making rather than the degree of some imagined perfection. Also, grit through, keep an open mind, and accept that change is life’s only constant.
