Why the Road to Success is so Painfulfeatured

I was taught at a young age that all you have to do in life to be a success is go to school, get good grades, and graduate. I did everything I could to get good grades. I was never really smart but I always put in that extra effort.

I was going to be a cop like my dad, I thought. Little did I know life had a different plan for me.

When my love of writing showed up there was no turning back. My heart and soul instantly knew I would have to do this for a living.

Once I knew what I needed to do, I thought the path to get there would be seamless. Like those many video games where you collect the gold coins as you go, I figured the road to success would be an easy one to take. Maybe I would grab some coins for safe measure along the way, I thought.

Flash forward to today. Success is extremely painful. Rather than collect coins, you have to figure out what resources to use, from where, and why.

Things aren’t labeled or organized in any way, you have to pave your own way. You will feel uncomfortable and lost as you navigate but that just means you are taking steps toward growth.

Success only shows up when you allow yourself to fail. I have to be honest, I’ve failed a lot, and I’ve failed hard.

The other day I even begged life to take the successes back because they hurt so much. The universe laughed at me and threw more tests my way.

The only way I can rationalize this is by saying that success wouldn’t be so sweet if our failures didn’t hurt so deep. There’s no use in retreating because the universe will always find you. And rainbows only show up after the biggest of storms.

The older I get the more the look of success changes. I am really hard on myself but must find ways to give myself grace with every step I take toward success.

No one ever told me success would hurt. But then again, life is but a series of lessons. You can either grow as you go or give up half way through because you simply refuse to be better. The choice is yours.

Love Deeply and Forever,

Karen