I have always thought of myself as being the eternal optimist. No matter what came my way, I was always able to remind myself that whatever happens, it is always for the best. I would see things that I perceived as negatives occurring around me only to realize later that they were necessary in order to have some very positive results. That was until earlier this week when all of a sudden I wasn’t so sure anymore about the wisdom of such thinking in the real world in which we live.“It doesn’t matter what happens to any of us as long as we believe in God and have dreams and believe that we can do anything that we choose to do.”
Barbara Jacoby
I guess sometimes everything just catches up with you in a way that you never expect. I share with others in the breast cancer world that they should continue to pursue their dreams that also seem to be evaporating before their eyes. I watched as some people around me either lose their jobs or are dealing with the belief that they are about to lose them. I found myself beginning to doubt even those things in my life that were positives for fear that they were only a figment of my imagination and it was only my perception that made them appear to be positives.
What was wrong with me? Why was I starting to think about all of the negative things going on rather than focusing on the positive? Why had I stopped believing that you can have whatever you want if you just believe in it and continue to work for it? Why had I forgotten that things don’t always happen within the time frame that we would like? Why is it that I no longer realized that regardless of what happens, it can always be turned into something positive? Well, it took me several days to realize why I stopped believing in all of these things. It was because I stopped believing in myself.
It doesn’t matter what happens to any of us as long as we believe in God and have dreams and believe that we can do anything that we choose to do. Having goals are what keep us going. If you have a goal and reach it, you have to set a new one or you won’t have any reason to get up in the morning. And the only way that any of us will ever reach our goals is if we keep on believing.
So be it tomorrow or the next day or next week, I will do everything that I can to always hold on to my beliefs that I can accomplish anything. There is absolutely no reason why any of us can’t do or be or become whatever we want. The only thing that will ever hold us back is if we don’t believe in God and in ourselves. We are all created equal and it is up to each of us to achieve whatever we want. And should we choose to do nothing and always depend upon others for who we are and what we have and what we believe, we will never have a life in which we have self-esteem and know true happiness. And since I want so much more for myself and everyone else that I know, I will do everything that I can so that I will never stop believing again, for even a moment, for all of us and in all of us.
Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.