Sometimes life just sucks. In one week I got an IRS letter, got my insurance cancelled, as well as some not-so-great news concerning health of the loved one. Sometimes a day feels extremely long and overwhelming, and then I look at the clock, and it’s not even noon yet.

If you know this feeling, congratulations – you belong to the majority of humans who battle anxiety and a legitimately serious case of Why Am I Even Bothering. As soon as life seems more or less figured out, something new falls on your lap. There’s no end in sight – there are new challenges no matter how far you’ve come. On the bright side, you are really not the only one in this boat.

This is the moment when I’m really grateful for the times we live in. I’m grateful for the mental health awareness, I am grateful for the opportunity to express feelings freely without fear of being judged. I’m grateful for the fact that if a bully ever shows up in my creative space, I will have enough confidence and common sense to know that I’m in the right to say what I feel, and nothing – and noone – will ever change that.

I’m grateful that no matter how hard my day gets, my load is still lighter than that of my parents. No matter how bad it gets, there’s still food on the table, there are still friends to confide in, there are still things to do and distract myself with.

The only way to succeed in something is to keep going. The first failure is not a sign, and neither is the second one. It will only ever become a sign if I’ll choose and want it to be. Do you see what I mean? You might not be in control of extraneous circumstances, but you sure are in control of how you react to them.

So I choose to deal with the shit that keeps on falling in my lap. I’ll cut that elephant of a challenge into small bites, and eat it piece by piece. I don’t know any other way, really.

Sometimes it’s not inspiration that we need, it’s a cold hard look at the reality. Who do you want to be 5, 10, 20 years? What steps do you need to take today to eventually become that person? What tasks do you need to finish this week to have that business of your dream in a few years? And please remember that there’s no such thing as a “final stage” to most things. Most often it’s a work in progress. I choose to embrace it and accept it as a default state of things rather than fight it.

Feel like giving up?

I uploaded my first YouTube video in 2008. 😶— Amy Landino (@Schmittastic) April 29, 2019

Sometimes life and work just sucks. But sometimes it exhilarates you, making you feel like you’re on top of the world. A minor problem solved is often all I need to get a second wind.

Perseverance is not just a personality trait, it’s a skill and a habit to be trained. And every time you overcome something you thought was hard, it gets easier. Not because it’s never going to be as tough again, no; because you’ve just expanded what you know you can do.

So I’m going to drink a hot cup of coffee and toast to perseverance and an inner sense of why we do things we do. To perseverance, to challenges, to the road ahead!