Quote of the Day; Story of My Life

”You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King

I’m not a big consumer of inspirational quotes. I find life itself so inspiring that I don’t need quotes to spew evident facts about life to me. But sometimes even I come across quotes by influential people that hit a spot in my mind. Usually those quotes have a point that might not open up unless you’ve seen more of life than just the never-changing streets and people of your home town.

One such quote was the above example from a legend that is the one and only Martin Luther King. In his life he cultivated multiple spot-on and brilliant sentences but this struck a cord with me especially. Why particularly? Because I know exactly (both figuratively and literally) what it feels like standing at a foot of a staircase looking up and not seeing where it ends... If it ever ends. 

One such staircase I met in Paris when we started climbing up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and another in Lednice, Czech Republic climbing up to the Minaret. (Travel-tip: I strongly recommend to each and every one of you to make a trip to Czech Republic and find your way to the Lednice-Valtice area!)

In life each of us comes to a situation at some point where you can’t quite see where you are going, there’s no clear ending to the road you’re on. Such situations can be, for example, a divorce; You are detaching yourself from something that has been your entire world for most of your life. You have no idea what waits ahead, it could be something bad but surely there is something good ahead as well. The only way to figure out what it is, is to take that first step, detach yourself and make your way forwards, just as you have done so far, but now in a new life-situation. 

Initial shock is guaranteed but it will fade away and be replaced by life realities, the old and familiar ones but also new and exciting things that might have gone unnoticed when you were busy living your life through someone else. 

Another example situation, which I am personally very, very familiar with, is a situation where you have decided to move abroad. You might have a job waiting in the other country or you might not. Regardless, you can never know what is to come when you actually get there. But again you must store all your doubts and hesitations away, out of the way because the only way is forwards. 

Insecure people find these situations in life very hard; the doubts and hesitation takes over and all you can think of is everything that could possibly go wrong. Vice versa, people with intact self-esteem are able to ignore all those misgivings and move on regardless. Even though they also know that there is a chance that this might not go quite as they would like it to. But they don't believe in failing, only in learning, so it can’t all be bad, it never is! It might even be excellent. 

And with that positive mindset and with curiosity it is easier to take the steps all the way to the top and see what lies there waiting for you. Even if things start badly, keep in mind, it’s never all bad! Things will turn eventually and you will notice that making that choice, climbing those steps was completely worth it. I promise you. Because I know. :)