When That Thing You Want Is Always Just Out of Reach ~ Day 3

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This is the third of a four post series about how to deal with moving forward when that thing you want is always just out of reach. I’m guessing if you’ve been around for any length of time, you may have experienced this at one time or another, or, perhaps this sort of thing is still in your future.

The interesting thing about disappointment and life not going as we have planned or in the way we would like it to is that we can’t change it. Try as hard as we may, other than making adjustments, it is a rarity that we can do anything about things that are outside of our reach.

However, we can control how we respond to these things.

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In the first post in this series, I shared the first four steps. They are to breathe, to not feel guilty about hurting, to spend time grieving that things are not the way you want them to be, and then to begin processing through that thing you want being out of your reach yet again. You can read the first post by clicking here.

In the second post I shared four more steps. They were to get someone else’s perspective, find wisdom, find inspiration, and finally to accept. You can read that post by clicking here.

Now, let’s move forward with the next four steps to take when that thing you want is always just out of reach.

Find love

When going through a difficult time, it is so important to surround ourselves with people who love us. This could be family, this could be friends, this could be people you know from your church, or something completely different. However, surrounding yourself with people you love is so important.

Find fun

If you are anything like me, you may not have enough fun in your life. There really is nothing like fun to help make our hearts soar. It can be difficult to find fun in the midst of sadness, disappointment, and despair, but I find fun in things like watching a classic comedy, having a dance party with my kids, or even reading a joke book with my kids. Here’s one for you. I dare you to head to a playground with big swings and not smile as you fly through the air on a swing. I just don’t think it can be done. When dealing with hard times, it is so vitally important to find some fun from time to time.

Find blessings

Finding blessings in our life is one of the best ways to help things get into the proper perspective. Believe me, I know what it feels like when the world seems to be ending, but no matter what circumstances surround you, there are always blessings to be found. Sometimes you have to hunt for them, but they are there. Even better is to write these blessings down. If you do that, you can come back to them when you start to feel down again. Dealing with stress, disappointment, and sadness can be a bit like a rollercoaster as your emotions are often all over the place, but remaining focused on finding the blessings in your life every day can so greatly help you weather the storm.

Find a new plan

By the time you get to this point, you have in essence come to terms with the fact that the thing you want is yet again outside of your reach. Now, the recovery process needs to begin, and it begins with coming up with a new plan. Things have not turned out like you wanted them to or as you thought they would, so, the time has come to have to come up with a new plan. A plan that gets you moving forward again.

I think we can certainly all agree that life is full of bumps, roadblocks, and unexpected detours. In most cases, they are simply unavoidable. However, the longer I am alive and the more my expectations, hopes, and dreams are challenged, the better I get at learning to cope with them.

These trials and disappointments are never easy, but we still must weather the storm.

We have now moved through the first 12 steps I find essential when it comes to coping with life when that thing you want is always just out of reach.

Tomorrow, we will move forward with the final four steps to follow.