Perspective: Focused on the climb

I’m probably going to stun you when I tell you I watched. Are you ready for this?  Hannah Montana: The Movie!

Yup.  I loved it.  There was such a great message in it.  It was a good, wholesome, clean, family movie, not to mention there were some really funny parts!  But that isn’t what spoke to me the most about this movie.

I recently wrote a post about…

a characteristic that I depend on to continue forward in my journey with CFIDS/FMS titled, Perseverance: the road to EMBRACING my DREAMS.  There is another word that sums up how I stay  focused and able to continue forward and it also starts with a ‘P’.  It is perspective.

In the movie above, Miley Cyrus writes a song that spoke to me because the words reflect my personal perspective and world view.  In addition, I think this song should be the anthem for all of us who are struggling with a chronic illness day in and day out.   The song is called, The Climb.  It talks about how we must always strive to climb the mountain in order to get to the top and see the view.  Sometimes the voice in our head will be what slows us down or stops us, but we need to get past that voice and climb.  Sometimes we won’t know where we are going, or the battle will seem too hard, but we can’t give up.  We have to keep moving and climb that mountain or we will never see the view.

This past week has been a challenging one  for me mentally.  I want to climb that mountain.  I am determined to climb that mountain.  But the negative voice in my head gets so loud sometimes that I start slipping down the mountain.  Lately I have been moaning because I am on week 8 of being housebound and pretty much in bed or resting in my comfy chair.  My energy levels are all over the place and I am having breakthrough pain from the Fibromyalgia almost daily.  Yet, I want to climb out of this valley I am in and stand on the mountain top and yell,

I made it!  I did it!  I overcame one more time!

But my body isn’t cooperating right now.  So, what is a girl to do?  This movie reminded me of what my goal should be.  I must always be climbing the mountain which means when the negative voice in my head gets louder than everything around me, I need to shut it down.  I can do that by changing my perspective.

There are days when it is all I can do just to focus.  On those days, I pull into myself and my 4Walls and A View.  And that’s okay.  But sometimes, I need to change my perspective and look outside of myself again, and see that mountain and all the possibilities that come with it.  I need to remind myself that I will climb that mountain one more time.  I just need to get moving forward again.

If I come to a place where I start to believe that I can’t climb the mountain, or that I will do it and never have another mountain to climb, I’m done.  I must always understand that there will always be another mountain – for me that means another crash, another payback, another bug, whatever.  My focus shouldn’t be on  how challenging the obstacles in front of me are.  My focus should be on the climb.

In other words, for me personally, I can’t focus on yesterday.  That is gone.  The mistakes I made are done and over.  I need to move forward.  The future isn’t here yet, so focusing obsessively on it only wastes any energy I have.  I need to see the future as that mountain I want to climb.  Then today, I will be able to take my energy and focus on accomplishing one more step, two more steps, maybe three more steps – whatever I can do to continue forward so tomorrow, or the day after, I will accomplish my goal of climbing the mountain.

Just because I have CFIDS/FMS doesn’t mean that I am less or less able.  It just means I need to change my perspective and see my world with new eyes.   I need to remember that there will be many obstacles that I must overcome.  I also need to remember, that I can overcome them.  I just have to change my perspective to one of a ‘can do’ attitude, even if that ‘can do’ attitude is accomplished a little at a time, or through ten steps forward and 2 steps backwards.

It might take a while.  It might be extremely hard.  I might fail.  But then again…I might succeed.

I will never know the outcome unless I choose to constantly keep moving forward and upward.  I will never see the view if I don’t keep my perspective focused on the climb and all the possibilities that come with it.  Today, I am choosing to change my perspective and get back to climbing that mountain!

Determined to continue forward,