Episode 133: How to Move Forward When You Are Stuck

Do you feel stuck by a set back? If you don’t now, you probably will at some point in life. My dad gave me the best advice when we were out trail running and I fell. I was complaining about the fall, even though I wasn’t injured. But he was focused on the positive truth: “It doesn’t matter that you fell; you got back up.” This has helped shape how I handle disappointments in life - whether it’s a lost job opportunity or a personal set back. When something doesn’t go your way, you can still find gratitude in seeing the positives in the situation. But perhaps the most important thing is to pause and pray. What does God want you to do with this disappointment? It might be to persevere and pursue the dream further. It might be to completely pivot to something new. Either way, don’t stay down when you fall - get back up!

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With gratitude, Stephanie❤️

Transcript

A Trail Fall And A Lesson

0:05

Hey there. I had this happen to me while I was running on trails with my father, and the advice that he gave me changed my life. Now, it was something I've always known, but it just hit differently when he told me that. Hey, I'm Stephanie Jones, and I am your host of the Giving Your Best Life podcast. So, what was that advice? So my dad and I were running on a trail, and while we were running, I tripped and fell. And I hopped back up, I continued running, but I also started complaining a bit about falling.

Why Getting Up Is The Win

0:42

And my dad, in his wisdom, which he always has, is he simply replied to me, it doesn't matter that you fell, you got back up. And he was so right because I think so many times in life when we fall. One is if we look at that whole scenario, is it would have been really easy for me just to stay on the ground and stay where I was at. Now, obviously, if I had been hurt or had been injured, I would have had to do that. But a lot of times is the only hurt and injury we have is with our pride, with our ego, with our like heart and our mind. But it's not a physical. I was fine. I was bruised, scraped, banged up. But my ego did get hurt a little bit, obviously. It's like, how, like, pick up your feet, Stephanie. So a lot of times when we fall, is we stay where we have fallen. And we start having these internal dialogues with us, and we start shaming ourselves. We start feeling guilty for what happened or what didn't happen. And honestly, is we can always, whenever we stumble and fall, is it's always good to take stock and to pause and ask yourself maybe like what happened, but then we don't stay there. We get back up. And that's one thing that I did. And guess what? By getting back up, it moved me forward on the trail. I finished that run for the day. I finished that goal that I had set out to. And so many times all we see is the fall. And it's like if we get back up, we can move forward. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting up and taking that first step. And when I took that first step, I was having to brush myself off. I had dirt. I had, you know, I had scrapes, and it was like, okay, I've got to like reorient myself.

Gratitude When Life Gets Hard

2:43

But also, I was complaining. I was complaining. And I talked about in the past on a past episode about the power of gratitude. And this is really where if I would have had that mindset shift and that flip is instead of complaining about the fall, I could have been grateful for. Let's let's walk through this of what gratitude looks like in this moment when we fall, when we have something hard happen. I could have been grateful, one, that I didn't hurt myself. Um, you know, anytime you're trail running and you fall, you can hurt yourself. I didn't hit my head or anything. Two, is I got back up. Like I should have just been grateful that I got back up. Three, I should have been grateful that I had a running partner out on the trail with me in case something would have happened. That was my dad. He was out there. Four, like I was able to move forward and get back on pace and like pick up like nothing had ever happened. But what did I do? I started complaining.

Refusing The Complaint Spiral

3:45

Now, this is an important moment that when we are with people, we kind of feed off of each other's energy, right? So have you ever been complaining about something to a friend? And what do they do? They join in on the complaining. Now you're both in this negative situation. And my dad did not take the bait. He didn't join in. He didn't, you know, turn that situation or keep that situation in the negative mindset that I was in. He simply stated a positive to that situation, which was, hey, you got back up. And that is such an important lesson in life because I think so many times, think about when things don't go your way. What do you do? Do you complain? Do you stay stuck there? Think about if you applied for a job or there was an opportunity that was in front of you and you didn't get it or you missed it. Do you stay in that fall? Or do you brush yourself off? Do you pause? Now, this is something that I've done this a long time in my life, but it just hit me this week. Is this really the process that I do when I'm planning, I'm falling, I'm moving forward, I'm whatever it is, fill in the blanks.

Pause, Pray, Pursue, Pivot

5:05

Is okay, so let's take the situation is you've fallen. There was an opportunity, there was a job, something didn't go your way. Is take a moment to pause, to pause and pray about the situation, about what is your next step forward. What are you going to do when you get up? Sometimes we know exactly what that looks like or what it should look like. Other times we don't know. We've got to just take a step of faith. And other times it's like we know what not to do, um, or we might have a couple of different options. And so we might have to kind of pursue each of those options. So that's the first thing is pause, pause, pray, and then maybe you have to pursue something. You have to take that step of faith. Maybe it is pivoting. So maybe you thought you were headed down one path, that didn't work out, and so you're gonna have to pivot and do something different. Also, sometimes is when we stumble and we fall or we have a missed opportunity or something doesn't go our way, there's nothing to pursue anymore. There's nothing to pivot to. And maybe we would just want to keep in that same vein, but we really feel like maybe God's calling us to something different. And it's something that it's like maybe you don't want to leave uh this thing over here behind. But sometimes we got to pitch that thing to pursue what God is calling us to

Encouragement And Ways To Share

6:45

do. So today, this is my encouragement for you. If you are in that place where you've fallen in stuck, is get back up. Get back up and move forward. And if you haven't been in that place or you're not there, is maybe you have a friend and you need to share this episode with them. And my guess is if you haven't been there, you're gonna be there in the future and pull this one back up a little later so you can use it. And hopefully it's just another way that you can get to giving your best life. Thank you for listening to the Giving Your Best Life podcast. If this episode encouraged you, would you please share it with a friend or family member? Also, we'd love it if you would rate and review this podcast. Finally, if you want to connect with us, subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok and Instagram at GivingYourBest Life. Have a fabulous day.