Mid-year Haul Tips: the secret to endurance

29th June 2021.

It is the middle of the post-COVID-lockdown year: 2021.

Like a big brown ball of wool winding down a slope, the air of late June reek of drag.

Surely, it has been six long months of stretch. January came with pom-poms of possibilities. February and March cut through with a sieve. Then came April bringing along some reality checks. May yet; and still some glimmer of hope. But what do we have here; June seems the crash point and it’s only halfway through the year!

Who ever likes the middle of anything?

I love beginnings and endings. They vibrate the same spirit: tangible palpable energy, swift motions, and lots of positive emotions. At the beginning of the year, gusto burst forth in every direction, expectations are at max; boy, do I like this place!

It is energy good for the body. It is good for the mind as well and required for take-off. But soon after acceleration comes the drag. Then, equilibrium in a steady or no motion at all.

Yet, it isn’t at all novel: the June spirit. As creatures of flesh and blood, with delay comes weariness at the middle of anything. It is the limitation of not having all the details, yet, forging on to the finish. Surely, no one starts a journey with no hopes for a finish. Hence, it is needful to break past the drag and steady for the remaining months on till the end. And this I believe is a task first completed in the mind.

Think of it: athletes who compete and complete a marathon do not have many things in common. But they sure have one thing in common – the grit to finish. And it lies in the understanding of this principle:

“The journey to the finish is first completed in the mind”.

Name it: numerous records set have been surpassed. The race has been completed in the time past. Just like you, they must have started with passions at the beginning and met with some dead-log somewhere in the middle. It would naturally result from many discouragements, frustrations, obstacles, and threats. However, finishing the race must have been so important to them, they managed to keep going till the end.

So perhaps, a good place to start is this: you have caught a vision at the beginning of the year and you started perhaps on the right foot; yet, the guarantee you will finish is that you first commit to finishing ‘at all cost’. It is first a decision – one that will be judged by many things to come. So you must be cleared on it: finishing is a priority for you.

Once this priority is settled, next you want to break the bore. How do you find the zeal and gusto after so many setbacks in a row?
Surely, it is not the same as in the beginning; some waters have come under the bridge at this point. Yet, you must look back at the beginning to remember where you are coming from and how far you have come in all.

The middle is usually not the designated location. Yet, you have covered some distance at this point. It is something to be grateful for. And to wield past the middle, you need both: hindsight for gratitude and foresight for altitude.

You must take a look at the journey of progress thus far and be thoroughly grateful for it. What if you never started at all; would there be a destination location? And if you didn’t have life in you, we wouldn’t be having this discussion to begin with. The odds against your current position are many. Do count them well; you have a lot to be grateful for.

Then, in the spirit of gratitude, there is a need to recall the big picture.
What does the destination location look like? What got you started in the first place? You cannot afford to lose the picture. Without this picture, there is no future. There is nothing to aspire to and boredom becomes despair.

So you want to recall just what it was you saw that got you started at the beginning. Was it to meet a need? A people to be reached? A family to be liberated? Can you still see this picture vividly? What good will it do if you stopped at this point? If you didn’t have what it takes to finish, I daresay you wouldn’t have caught the picture in the beginning.

It is some hard nuts to chew at this point: it wasn’t meant to be easy but you were meant to deliver on the task. So it came to you: the picture. And out of many others, you saw it and responded to it. If you have started on this noble path, it is important to finish. Sometimes, for the sake of others: the people to whom you are sent; the lives connected to yours, the people that will need your story to attempt theirs; your family/offspring that will be liberated for this cause. Yet, there is fulfillment for you too to see a dream come true.

So you must look from where you are to where you will be by the completion of the journey, and be encouraged to keep going. You do this every single time or you faint every single time. It is a choice to keep going or give up in the middle. But it is an easy choice when you have made it a priority to finish at all costs.

So let’s get going, up and back on our feet with glee for the remaining half of the year. Appreciate your journey; the progress of the last six months. Then retrieve the picture; the sketch of the destination. And get back in motion however slowly but definitely.

Yet, if you started on the wrong foot, it is always better late than never. Getting to the end on the wrong path won’t deliver the fulfillment of completion. Moreover, it is endangering lives; yours and many others. So see the big picture and never hesitate to make a U-turn where required.

This is to the success of your journey. May you always find the spirit of endurance to carry you through the middle and right to the end.

Happy new month of July 2021!

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See also: Imagine – It is time!