You Will Die With Unfinished Tasks

You will die with unfinished tasks.

(I know that’s a harsh way to start this, but it’s true.)

In our head, we like to think of things as having beginnings and endings.

• We start school.

• We finish high school.

• Maybe from there we go to college.

• And after a few years there we finish and enter the workforce.

But it’s not that simple. Life is messier than that.

The fact is:

We will never reach a plateau of perfection, or a peaceful moment of nirvana where we get all caught up.

In this way life is less like a sitcom (Where storylines arise and come to completion in neat little boxes of time).

And more like a soap opera (With messy plotlines tangling over one another as time goes on).

Some resolve themselves over time.

But the laugh track never cues at the end of an episode and the credits never roll over a freeze frame of us smiling.

And you know what?

That’s fine!

Life was never meant to be without struggles.

And whether we like to admit it or not. The truth remains:

It never gets any easier.

That may sound pretty pessimistic, but by trying to deny life’s trials we don’t make it any easier on ourselves.

While it may be true that life doesn’t magically get easier over time-and we often aren’t given breaks by life to catch our breath...

It’s equally true that we get stronger as we overcome life’s challenges.

So the next time you find yourself frustrated because your “To Do” list is filling up with new tasks as fast (or faster) than you can cross off the one’s already there…

Remember:

Life’ isn’t always an easy stroll through a quiet park. (It would be boring if it was.)

Instead, our lives are long nuanced journeys full of periods of struggle and trial. (Just as much as they are full of moments of joy and peace.)

But as long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other we are building ourselves up to face anything the the journey throws at us.

-Brent