How to Find Strength When You're Exhausted | Ep. 08

Today might be one of those days where you’ll have to pull out all the stops, and give it your all.

You’ll be asked to show up, to perform, to finish the race all the way through.

You buckle in for a long day in the zone, clocked in, on duty… doing your job.

The anticipation of the soon to arrive three hundred emails all fighting for your attention like a digital battle Royale in your pocket has got your eyes twitching.

And forget the texts, the zoom meetings, the calendar invitations and the drama you’ll have to navigate through, like some sinister Bermuda Triangle designed to keep you spinning plates until you drop something.

Yeah. One of those days.

Your brain knows it. It tries to weasel out of it.

But regardless of how insane the day might appear in this moment, you hear the call.

You swallow your hesitation, and you go forward.

It’s tortuous. You grind. You slog through. You make it all the way.

And the day is done.

Exhausted, you return home.

And in this moment of depletion, you question the why of it all.

What was it for? Where did all that effort go to?

Was that it?

You look at the days you have remaining and a desperate alarm dings in your heart.

Caught in a limbo of satisfaction for knowing you gave it your all and served your duty to the T and a gnawing sense of doubt for spending the effort on the wrong path.

It is here in this moment where you’re given the ultimate choice

You have the choice to Choose one side of the coin toss - feeling like crap for spending an entire day working towards a meaningless existence, or ignoring the doubt and celebrating your effort, regardless of the meaning.

Or you can make the choice to go beyond the choice and recognize that it isn’t what you get out of the struggle but the struggle itself that is the purpose.

In the work you exist. In the work you build strength. In the swinging of the hammer day in day out you build familiarity and momentum. It is this that makes the journey what it is.

And so you step through the exhaustion. You step through the doubt. You step through the angry voice that shakes a fist to the heavens demanding compensation for all the suffering.

In that moment strength finds you. The tank that was seemingly empty is now connected to a shining, limitless reserve.

You suddenly have the strength to give it one more swing.

You have the strength to now give love with the rest of the day you have remaining.

You look at the smiles on the faces of the ones who support you.

You look inward at the soul.

And you smile.

This is gratitude for a day well spent.

This is the moment that all the effort carries meaning.

This realization is what we are made for.

It is not the awards, the claps from the audience or a seductive wink in your direction that connect you with that unlimited power deep inside.

It is not hustle or grit or pride.

It is love.

Love for the swing of the hammer.

Love for the act of showing up.

Love for running towards life, towards the hard parts of life, in pure surrender.

That is the point of it all.

So give it one more sprint today. Hold your smile longer. Raise your arms higher, and live, boldly giving love.