Can you sit with your unique form of strength today? Can you strive for instead of fighting against? Can you persevere in the face of challenges? Can you hold tight to your worth instead of defending it? Can you know you are enough simply by nature of your being?
Sometimes it’s hard for me to stop fighting in favor of striving. I don’t mean fighting in the physical sense. But to me, fighting is pushing back against an external force while striving is seeking to arrive. Sometimes we are doing both, but often, I am more comfortable fighting. There’s a clear enemy when I’m fighting. When I’m striving however, I’m mostly competing with myself.
And striving can be more about whether I’m enough rather than whether I was able to overcome the force. And so striving, at least for me, puts more of my self worth on the table. If I’m fighting I might be beaten but if I’m striving I might just fail. And so the challenge of striving is holding on to your inherent worth when things don’t go as you wanted. Because there is no external force that beat you…you simply didn’t arrive.
As you read this I wonder:
Do you feel the difference between fighting and striving?
Can you seek to spend more of your energy on striving?
Can you believe enough in you to keep the faith when your striving doesn’t quite get you where you want to be?
The other difference I guess is that striving is forever but whatever I fight against will eventually go away. So when we strive, we need to allow ourselves the chance to rest and drift. I hope this week you find a chance not to stop striving but to allow yourself to take a moment.
