Delight can prove most challenging when we feel stalled. Others seem to be shining in spotlights and joy, while we seem doomed to linger in the shadows. Despite our hopes of fulfillment, we’re stuck in the wings watching others beam with happiness. We seem to churn our days in the same circles of effort, yet to reach our goals. How can anyone choose joy when stuck in the doldrums?
The American dream insists joy comes when we reach a goal. But if our exhilaration only fulfills us at the moment of achievement, our high soon withers. Conditional satisfaction eludes us and fades quickly. Like drinking salt water, it proves more thirst-provoking than satisfying.
To live delighted, we must choose unconditional contentment. The attitude we adopt while trudging through the desert will remain part of us when we set up a home in the promised land. We craft our character and carry it with us. Circumstances don’t define our disposition. We do. And wherever we are, we’ll be keeping company with the character we’ve sculpted.
So in the backstage shadows of life, we’re well advised to choose pleasant company. And practice who we’ll be on the way to the spotlight as well as within its beam. Resilient happiness comes to those who opt to dance in the wings.
Character outlasts those brief, pinnacle moments of life. We’ll soon be back offstage, waiting to achieve a new goal. If we’ve learned to find joy in seasons of waiting, we will live every day in pleasant company with ourselves.
Today’s video lists the following tips to choose joy in the shadowy wings of life:
- Post your life’s purpose, and make it bigger than a single goal. Who and Whose are you?
- Set up stones of remembrance to mark seasons you’ve overcome in the past.
- Keep a gratitude journal. List everything you’d miss if it suddenly disappeared.
- Cling to an eternal joy, something which cannot be altered by circumstances. Write your statement of faith and post it clearly.
- Search for things to celebrate while you wait. What can you enjoy in this season? Goal attainment often increases workload, e.g., and affords less time for things available in the wings.
- Who can you encourage? Who could be blessed the most by watching you dance?
- Who is dancing beside you? Celebrate relationships with the people around you in this season. Find uplifting people and engage in mutual inspiration.
- Who might be dancing behind you in line for their goals? Notice those less fortunate. Let those who dance inspire you. Lift up those who haven’t yet found the joy rhythms, so they might have a change to dance with you.
What do you find most helpful when stalled on the way to a goal? Share your feedback and comments. I look forward to hearing from you.
Be Encouraged,
Tina