All In

You are ready to get started, you have pulled out your recipe book or your DIY project items and you are preparing to begin when you realize that you are short a key item. It could be eggs or butter for the recipe, it could be the right paint, saw or drill for your DIY project, but you are stopped, dead in your tracks and sent back to the start in your own personal game of SORRY. Now what? Do you give up? What is it worth to you to see the plan through?

That is life; you set out with a plan, your running full steam ahead and BAM something happens that derails you. The trick is will you remain derailed, or will you jump up and get back on track. It is easy with something like cooking or a project. You make a quick trip to the store, or you change your plan a little, but what happens when you are derailed in life?

I have never been one to shrink away from adversity. The only way out of hard times is through them and I have made it through some very long tunnels of hard times in my life so far. I have always felt that if I do not see the challenge and face it down now, it will come back. Maybe not the same challenge, but a different one and quite possibly a more difficult one. The universe puts life out there and what we do with it is all up to us. The trick is when the challenge begins are you going "all in" or are you going to sit on the sidelines and wait for it to pass?

Hard times do not get easier by wishing them away, it takes work. I remember when I was a single Mom years ago. When money was tight, I would freak out and not open my bills. I would have this stack of bills and not have any idea what I was going to do about them, but instead of opening them sorting them and making a plan, I would sit and stare at that stack of bills and worry. It finally hit me one day that the not knowing what was in the envelope was more stressful than just facing it down and opening the darn thing. I decided at that point that I needed some help and I found a non-profit financial counselor that helped me take back control of my financial life.

It is never easy to go "all in", sometimes you have to hit the bottom hard before you realize you are sidelined. The trick is making a move, start by shutting off the voices in your head that are not telling you the truth about who you are. Next you want to find some support, this support can be a friend or a counselor, the important part is to have someone that is encouraging you and reminding you that you are "all in" and you can do whatever it is you think you cannot.

Whatever project or mountain you must tackle today, remember to look at the project in bite size pieces. Believe in who you are and what you can do and just go all in. If running out for eggs is the worst obstacle you face, you know you can handle it, if your obstacle or challenge is bigger just know that with some time going "all in" will move you out of this hard time. The only good way to end the game of SORRY is for someone to win and by being "all in" that someone can be you.