Politics and Growth

This week was big for politics. My Facebook feed has been flooded with perspectives and the whole spectrum of emotions. Happiness. Relief. Anger. Sadness. Confusion. Excitement.

Big feelings.

When I was in my 20s, I was very politically minded. I wore my emotions on my sleeve every night listening to TV personalities tell the audience how fearful the state of things were and how we needed to be on guard. It was stressful and didn't fill me with peace.

As I've grown in how I think about things, I'm less inclined to get riled up now. I started seeing emotion-bating as a way to dull clear thinking and strip the humanity off people who didn't see things the way I did. I learned to let the rhetoric and slogans go and replace it with the idea that, no matter what, things will be okay. We may see things differently, but it's all going to work out in the end.

I think we all want to feel like we're doing good and making the world a better place. It seems like we're wired to look for problems and try to fix them. Politics is an arena where this is front and center. Political parties promise to change the world but, this is the thing with external change. We have very little control outside of ourselves. If we hang our emotions on how others behave and think, we've given our power away. We've traded our agency and replaced it with frustration and helplessness.

I keep thinking about my trainer's advice. You don't control the outcome of the game. You can only control how you show up. Whether you're frustrated and angry that your side didn't win, or elated and excited that your side did, the result was ultimately out of your control. Rather than getting caught up in the external, look for ways to ask what you personally can change. How can you do or be better? Learn from the moment and grow.

I became less adamant in my views because I stopped seeing the point in trying to force people to change when they didn't want to change. I would much rather concentrate on my own personal struggles. That's where I can bring goodness into the world. Right now, my struggle is losing weight and getting in shape. Once that's done, there will be the next, new challenge.

The best challenges are the ones we can overcome. The world is big and full of big problems. We'll have a better and more positive impact if we ourselves are better and more positive. Tackling personal challenges makes us stronger. More resilient. The best approach to a challenge is facing it in little, bite-size increments. Don't look at the whole mountain you have to climb. Look at the next step you have to take.

For me, having the daily habits of logging my food, adding some movement throughout my day and avoiding late-night snacking are little steps I can take to slowly move the scale downward. If I think about the 100 pounds I have to lose, it's overwhelming. But if I have the perspective of simply losing 1-2 pounds this week, it makes my daily habits feel like they're making an impact. Staying on plan for a day has little impact when compared to 100 pounds. But compared to one pound, it definitely counts. It feels like my single step up the mountain is important.

I suppose all of this is to say, I don't know how you feel about the election but, no matter what, there's always a challenge to tackle. A mountain to climb. Don't get overwhelmed by the size. Just put one foot in front of the other and move forward. Change yourself, change the world.

Down 1.4 pounds.