Ouch! Dang it. What was that? Did you hear that?

You left the dark, wretched cave you’d crouched in for years to quest for growth and adventure. You dreamed of golden light and expanding horizons. You really went for it. You gave it your all. And instead you find yourself in another dark, wretched cave. Ironic, isn’t it?

There’s no map for growth into uncharted territory.

You take a step, look around, figure things out again, then take another step. Or, if you’re on your hands and knees, you crawl another few centimetres forward. You guess if you have to, but you keep moving. Every step changes your situation. Every change means recalibration of the finely tuned dream-questing machine that is you.

The dense undergrowth of a tough passage doesn’t mean you shouldn’t push ahead if that’s where you know your fortune lies. It does mean developing your persistence muscles.

You will fall. Get up.

So, okay. The underbrush hid a ravine. Down you go. Plonk. Give yourself time to rant. Stomp around. Fling out your very worst curses. Shout until you lose your voice. Done? Get your bearings. Grope forward again.

So what if the path to your deepest dreams isn’t a straight line drawn in ink on a map so detailed the flowers are accurately noted. Your deepest dreams have to do with what makes you unique. Guess what? You’re headed into the darkness. Get your bearings again. You know the next step, even if it’s the only one you do know. It’s enough.

Stop looking for illumination. Be luminous.

{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }

Flickr photo: Oh, of course. Now I see, by dvs.

Related reading: Oops! Wrong Limb, Love’s Slope

What’s your first response to a setback? How do you handle bumps in the road, big or small? Hand-wringing, raging, tossing blame around, and giving up don’t get you very far. At best, they’re like running in place. At worst, indulged in habitually, they take you backwards, away from solutions and resolutions.

Here’s a radical strategy: think.

Feelings give us useful information. They alert us to problems. They provide crucial feedback about the journey. But thought steers. Take the time to tune in to the situation with your thinking cap on. Get logical. Reason with yourself. List the pros and cons. Make the case for and against. Reach out in new directions. Plan an experimental foray.

Don’t just think you know. Think until you know.

Actually take time out to use your mind to focus on the issue at hand. Do whatever it is that helps you think. Write it all out. Talk out loud to yourself. Take a walk with a pencil and a scrap of paper in your pocket. Sit in a corner of a quiet library. Make a point of setting feelings aside long enough to engage in a spot of real, hard-core, tell-it-like-it-is, clarifying reasoning.

Convince yourself you know what you’re doing.

{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of GRACE }

Flickr photo: Contemplation, by Just a Temporary Measure.