One Step At A Time.

By: Brooke Keith

What if every obstacle that stood in your way were moved in an instant?

Imagine that none of the things you are worried about even matter. Imagine that you have everything you could possibly need to succeed…

Did you try it? Good.

Now tell yourself this.

It was so easy to go there in your mind because it isn’t that you can’t go there, it is simply that you do not know the next step. Too many steps can be overwhelming. That’s why babies learn to walk one step at time and we learn to grow one step at a time too.

Looking at an entire spiral staircase can make you dizzy. And before you know it, you’re wondering if the stairs will wobble. If the footing will be hard to walk on. If the heights go up higher than you can even tell.

But when you think this way… you’ve thought way too far ahead.

You can convince yourself that life is asking a lot of you… or you can remind yourself that it is really just asking you is to take the first step.

Every day is just another step. Honest.

Some days will be spent in bed, maybe down and depressed. But not always. Remember that. Everyone has bad days. Some of us have bad years. But that doesn’t mean they stick around forever.

Some days will feel like a light comes shining through the curtains you block the sun out with so religiously. It will peek in brilliantly and it will come in with joyful glory asking no permission. You won’t even mind.

And other days you’ll believe that you can…

Until someone, or even yourself, brings you back to the original thought that you cannot.

I remember a time in my life when I had nothing of material value. I was in my late twenties and still asking my mother to make phone calls to my doctor’s office because appointment calls made me nervous. I remember feeling less than. I remember other times thinking my clothes weren’t that new and my nerves were probably showing through. I wondered if everyone disliked me or maybe spoke poorly of me behind my back. I felt like a burden and I often went without things I needed to keep from the overwhelming anxiety that came from asking for help.

As an older, wiser woman, I now know that no one looked down on me but me. And even the ones who didn’t like me very much one day had to respect me because they couldn’t deny what God had done in my life and the work I had put in too. Sometimes I stood on one step for years. Other times I ran up the whole case in a day. There were moments I sat down to cry. And even on restful days, I had to tell myself one day I’ll take another step. And you know what? I did.

When you feel like it will never get better or you don’t know what you’ll do “when”… fill in the blank. I want you to imagine a spiral staircase and either stand still today or take another step - just one. It’s really all you need to do and you can sit down at any time if you get scared. We all do.

A stair step can look like self care. Some days just surviving. Other days it will feel like great strides. Some days you’ll chicken out. Some days you’ll be braver than you knew you could be. Some days you will accomplish things that are so big to you but maybe small to the outside world. Celebrate that. It’s yours. All that matters is that it is BIG to you. You’re not living for them anyway. Just. Keep. Going. Athletes are not working to write the next great American novel and novelist aren’t practicing their jump shots. It’s all relative. And we all have different BIGS.

One day you’ll conquer so many staircases you’ll get brave enough for planes and trains and automobiles. Whatever those metaphors are to you…

And you’ll promise me that you’ll remember this? It’s not that you can’t. It’s that you just don’t realize it’s as simple as imaging there are no hurdles but you…

And faithfully taking each new step at your own pace knowing your anxiety is lying to you.

You’re not behind. You don’t have to catch up. You just grew different. And you’ll be there at your own pace. Pat yourself on the back for that. Not many people could have lived through what you did. And you made it out alive. Breathe that in.

Then, be kind to yourself. You’ll get there one day. Maybe not even that far away.

I did.

And I have every faith in the world that you will too.

(PS – I think you’re brilliant. I think you’re funny. I think you’re understanding and quite beautiful too. Just thought you should know.)