Getting By On Your Own Steam: Vision, Faith, and Perseverance

We often hear that we should reach out and gather a team of people around us when we feel like we could use some extra support.  Ideally, this support team will provide us with encouragement and added motivation, while helping us to weather the storms that we're facing. 
 
But any one of us, due to a variety of circumstances, can find ourselves at a place in life where we no longer have all the connections we used to.  As a result, the support you would normally have around you to draw on is no longer there.  These are the times when you need to push forward on your own steam, based on your vision, faith, and perseverance. 

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Maybe your network of friends has thinned out over the years, as people started focusing more on their careers and families.  Maybe you relocated and meeting new people didn't happen as easily as you thought it would.  Maybe a change in your own relationship status brought unexpected changes in your social network as well, with the loss of longstanding connections in the process.  Maybe you're not sure what happened, but it seems that over time, you and your friends have drifted apart, with everyone moving in a different direction.

Regardless of the circumstances, the outcome is the same:  you don't have a whole lot of support around you.  Without that external support, you need the ability to draw on your own inner strength.  Regardless of where you may be at and what you may be going through, a clear vision, combined with faith and perseverance, will help you to push through.
 
Vision:
You need to have a vision of what you want to achieve, or where you want to get to.  It's okay if the details are fuzzy; you can work them out as you move forward. 

​Perhaps you're going through a period of change or uncertainty, and you're not sure what you want to do or where you want to get to.  Maybe you're just trying to make it through each day.  Depending on where you're at and what's going on, looking too far ahead may be difficult; your vision may be restricted to your immediate next steps.  That's okay!  Ultimately, the important thing is that you cultivate a vision you can fix your eyes on, commit to, and wholeheartedly pursue.

Faith:
With your vision in place, faith is your belief that you'll succeed in achieving it.  That doesn't necessarily mean you won’t have doubts, fears, or uncertainty.  But in spite of all those emotions that come up, you hold on to the belief that you'll see things through. 

Faith is a huge factor in taking your vision and turning it into reality.  During those times when you don't have the support of others to draw on, having faith in yourself is essential.
 
Perseverance:
Perseverance is where the rubber meets the road.  It's where you follow through, stay the course, and commit to seeing things through.  Whenever you see someone who has overcome difficulties in order to accomplish something worthwhile, you can be certain that perseverance is part of the backstory; the person held on and persevered long enough to see things come to fruition.   
 
We all need people to help us get through the challenges of life, and a burden shared is always lighter.  But there are times when, for a variety of reasons, that extra support just isn't there.  Those times can be incredibly difficult; but they're also the times that "test your mettle" and reveal what you're truly made of. 

​If you grab hold of your vision, cling to your faith, and persevere through the difficulties, you'll not only make it through, but you'll emerge even stronger than before.

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