ON SECOND THOUGHT – Focus On The Prize Not The Price
Another week has just flown by before I could finally grasp it, and I’m sat down in bed once more writing a new Sunday post. This is one thing I’ve noticed this year; feels like things are going either way too fast or too slowly, and there’s a whole world in between that doesn’t seem to exist right now. I think it’s because of how intense things have been for everybody, our perception of reality is super heightened, and time seems all-consuming, fast and slow all at once.
Today we are halfway through November and I literally cannot wait for the Christmas cheer to fill the air, although I am well aware it will for sure be very different for a lot of us this year. Nevertheless, I feel like we could all use some mood-lifting décor, ‘All I Want For Christmas’ on repeat and conversations void of any political undertone as the holiday season draws near. We deserve at least that much!
I feel like the one thing that has been on my mind this week can be summed up well into one phrase.
It was probably Tuesday evening, I was laying in bed with a novel by Beth O‘Leary in hand and Sasha Sloan’s voice pushing softly through the speaker as though it was the soundtrack to the book I was too immersed in to do anything else. Smiles, laughs and thrilling anger; wasn’t aware I could be so emotionally invested in a book like that, but there I was speeding through the chapters, racing to the final pages (review here). It was then that a heard it.
From the room opposite mine, my dad’s voice echoed through more forcefully than the mild one from my speaker, and I couldn’t help but listen in. After all, I’m nosy like that, and walls do talk I find, especially British walls – how do they build these things? To be fair, ever since I moved to the UK I’ve had way too many questions about layouts and construction, but that’s a topic for another day… Anyway, back to my dad, he was on the phone with my sister for a catch-up call so long I wasn’t nosy enough to listen to in its entirety, but there was something he said that really did stick out to me.
He said: ‘Focus on the prize, not the price’. That simple sentence has been stuck in my head ever since.
Needless to say, I felt like a giant invisible finger made its way through the walls and was pointing straight at me.
I know myself well, I am definitely someone who gets hung up on the little things that aren’t going my way rather than focusing on the bigger picture. Often, I catch myself focusing on the losses rather than on the small wins, and I am prone to overthink every instance painted with awkwardness or failure. I’ve stated once before that sometimes, I get so afraid of failure or get so enticed with my need for perfection that I end up doing nothing at all. Isn’t it because I focus for far too long on the wrong things?
What I got from what my dad was saying was that essentially, don’t get so intertwined and broken down by the process of things that you forget the reason why you started in the first place. No matter what you go through, keep the goal in mind; alive and intact. It’s never that easy to do, in fact, as I grow older, I think I learn more and more that rarely ever is anything easy, but to achieve any goal you cannot avoid the uncomfortable stages.
Nothing comes for free and that means that we’ll forever have to give something in return for the things we want as our, whether big or small. It could eventually mean having to give up on other things to get the one you truly want or carrying heavy weights with you until you get to where you are going. It means that even if you stop along the way, and you might need to sometimes, the break must only be temporary, and you’ll get on with the journey sooner than later.
Perhaps, this year has dried out all your energy so much that all you can see around you is the price of the very thing you’re giving strength and might to achieve. Sleepless nights, uncontainable teary eyes, and pain that just won’t go away – are those seemingly the only things you can see right in front of you?
Well, maybe it’s time you close your eyes and look inward more. If we can focus on what we actually want, perhaps, we’d be more solution-driven, less willing to stay sat in the dirt for too long, and more inclined to search for the answers that aren’t always in plain sight.
Keep the goal in the forefront of your mind and have a great week! x
Your restless romantic roamer
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