Day 298: Climbing The Ladder
In life, we all attempt to climb ladders. We climb them to reach new places, to reach new accomplishments, and to become a new and better version of ourselves. Rung by run we ascent to the heights, challenging ourselves to go higher and to go faster. We consider success to be on the top rung of the ladder that hangs high above our heads.
Our actions in life determine how high we climb the ladder of success and how fast we reach our desired place. Every little thing we do adds to the height and every rung we reach is a marker for us to see how far we have come and how far we think we have to go. Life may not be only about the climb, but we are all aware of it and do our best to make the most of the ladder we are scaling.
We see everyone else climbing their own ladders and feel threatened with where we perceive them to be in their climb. However, our perception of their place is gathered through information they place into the world, in other words, we never see the full story. Social media, word of mouth, they can all be fudged a little bit to give off a better version of reality than the actual version.
We compare ourselves to this exaggerated story and we think they are further along than they probably are. Comparison makes us feel unsure of where we are in our climb because we see others that are so far ahead of us on their own ladder. It's so important, however, to realize where other are in their climb should have no effect over you.
Everyone has their own journey they must walk along, your eyes should be trained on your own ladder rather than someone else's. They are walking a different path than you are and therefore they will have a different position than you on their ladder. Your personal success should never depend on where someone else is on their journey.
Yet there is one element that is vital in our ascent that we must focus on. And that is whether or not we are still climbing up. It is so easy to get into the habit of doing nonsensical actions that lead nowhere while calling them productive steps toward success. Our ladder becomes a trap where we are no longer climbing towards our goals or towards success.
We get stuck in this endless travel of back and forth without any progression. Have you taken an honest look at your journey? Are you actually stuck on your ladder? Before we are able to continue our climb we must take an honest look at our lives to see if what we are doing is leading us anywhere. Realization that we are not moving is the first step to getting back on track.
It can be extremely easy to get stuck on a single rung, while thinking we are climbing further. To fix this we must find the actions we are performing that are keeping us in place. When we have done this, focus on the next rung and continue the climb. No one has to remain stuck forever, the power to move on is in your hands.
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
(Stuck)
Rung after rung, the ladder leads up, over, under, and through. Higher and lower and side to side, each climb leads to a new destination that is quite the same. Is the ascent leading anywhere or nowhere at all?
