Even When You Feel Like You’re Not Moving Forward, Keep Going ⭐
'It may not feel like it in this moment, or in a lot of moments, but someday you will look back and see the progress you’ve made and you’ll know.'
Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.
Healing is a funny thing. Growth is too. We always expect it to look one way, and more often than not, it ends up looking another. It’s easy to see where we are and think we aren’t where we should be.
But I hope you remember that there is no “should be” when it comes to self-work. To say that there’s someone we need to be or somewhere we need to be in a certain moment is to say that we’re all experiencing the same journey, and that’s just not the way life works. Part of being unique people is moving through our experiences uniquely.
So there will be days when you wonder why you feel like you’ve put in all the work but haven’t gotten “as far” as someone else you know who is dealing with similar circumstances. There will be days when you feel like you’re walking backwards, like everything is moving in reverse and your goal is becoming farther and farther away. There will be days when the easiest thing to do will just be to give up.
In those moments, I hope you take a breath. Take a beat. Get some rest. And then I hope you keep going.
I won’t lie: healing, growth, self-work, it’s all, well, work. It’s difficult. Sometimes it’s ugly. And it’s okay to think, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” Don’t punish yourself for those thoughts, for being human. It’s okay to take a little time to lick your wounds every now and then. But after that moment passes, I hope you choose not to let it linger. I hope you pick yourself up and keep moving forward.
Because yes, it’s all work, but you’re doing it for a reason. It’s because you know, deep down, that there’s something worth it on the other side of this. Because yes, healing is ugly, and growing is messy, and learning is frustrating, but it’s all so beautiful too, and beautiful things are worth fighting for. They’re worth the struggle. It may not feel like it in this moment, or in a lot of moments, but someday you will look back and see the progress you’ve made and you’ll know. You just will.
So even when the days feel hard, and even when it feels like you’re not moving forward, I hope you choose to keep going. Because going backwards is movement too, and sometimes we have to retrace our steps to find a better path forward. You will find it. Trust that you will.
What We’re Reading This Week 📖💛
“As I see more Black people come out in the community—such as Janelle Monaé, Laverne Cox, and Lil Nas X—I start to feel that reconciliation move inside me, combining my splintered parts into one and allowing me to embrace who I truly am.” — Fairley Lloyd
“A house is just a house, especially now that it’s empty. It’s just a few barren walls and crooked floorboards and the reality is that it stopped being a home once my mom died. Instead, it became a tomb.” — Courtney Dercqu
“The past doesn’t inevitably inform the future.” — Andrew Keen
“People connect by giving to each other. True generosity isn’t about opinions and stories. It’s about giving someone else a little space to be who they are, to want what they want, without feeling ashamed of any of it. It’s about believing that someone might care about you enough that they’re willing to give you that space, too.” — Heather Havrilesky
For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.
Let us leave you with this:
“Some days, you’ll feel like you’re going backwards. Like all progress you’ve made was an illusion. And you’ll want to quit. But you shouldn’t. Healing is never linear, and it’s going to take time.” — Jamal Cadoura
Be patient with your journey—be patient with yourself 🤍
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