Keep The Spirit

Yesterday I passed my Spanish exam.

It was an advanced level exam and yesterday in the evening I thought back to the time when I had the with to learn Spanish someday and when I started out. 

That was 7 years ago.

So, yesterday, after having passed, I realized that this marks a big milestone for me. I started out without knowing where it would bring me, I just wanted to see if I would like it.

And I just kept at it and never stopped.

I didn’t even put that much work in. Or at least, that’s what it feels like. But then, work doesn’t feel like work when we like that we do.

I just tried to dedicate a little time every day to it, sometimes as little as just 10 minutes.

A reminder of the shortcut of all shortcuts to get wherever you want to get: just never stop.

But that’s not even what I wanted to talk about today.

I wanted to talk about something else.

Yesterday, having passed the exam, I felt great, proud of myself and I felt how good that did me. For a time all worries about the future, about things that could go wrong are gone.

No thinking about what to do in order to get further, how much competition there is, if and when I’m ever going to reach my writing goals, and so on and so forth.

For a while everything seemed fine.

But then, today, the next day, I feel different.

I still feel good about the success of my exam, but I also feel that my mind tries to invade me again with thoughts and tasks and worries that I want to keep out.

That’s normal. The mind does it because it can and because it is used to it.

The point here is not to let it (or just as little as possible).

Over time we develop, we have successes, we change.

But our mind tries to keep us in our old habits.

Don’t let it.

If you have successes in between and later on you lose that great feeling you had the moment when you accomplished it, try to go back to that every now and then.

Look back to what you have accomplished, be proud of yourself, celebrate yourself.

Your mind always tries to make yourself miserable, and that’s okay. That’s the mind’s way of saying, “hey, those things could go wrong, so you better be prepared”. 

Don’t react to it.

Every success changes you. You’re not the same person than before. You’re one step further than the day before.

So, try to keep the bad habits that you had as the person you were yesterday behind and become aware that you have progressed, advanced. 

You’re on your way.

Keep the spirit of the success with you. That will inspire you to go on and keep going.

Other ways to get rid of old habits that try to block your inspiration: