Kay:
Welcome Questers to The Mentorship Quest with Kay and Shi! Today’s episode is Episode #93, and we have an MLK quote coming at you today!
Shi:
Oh my gosh, I love this one so much! He says, “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
Kay:
Mmmmm – gotta love Martin Luther King Jr! And what a fantastic quote from somebody who really embodies tenacity, perseverance, and persevering when things are HARD!
Shi:
Yeah, exactly! And what he went through was SO much, and yet, he had a dream, and he’s got all these famous speeches, and he’s made ALL this impact! So we can see through his life – (with his really high highs and famous moments) – what it really took for him to get to the tops of those mountains. And, how he really had to crawl quite a bit metaphorically speaking. In other words, his life is some pretty great inspiration for some of those times when we don’t feel like responding to an email….
Kay:
Oh absolutely! Well, the thing is, the world will keep moving forward whether you move forward or not. And you might be the kind of person that’s like, “time’s a construct mannn.” And, you’re right – it is! But, the reality of it is that the decay of life (AKA aging, or getting older, or moving forward) will happen with you, or without you. So you better consciously get in the game and move forward, if you want to keep up!
Shi:
Right? I mean, I can’t remember who said this, but it really goes back to this concept that change is mandatory, but growth is optional. Because things are going to change, and things are going to move. And what this quote really tells us is that it doesn’t even matter how BIG your momentum is. If you have intention, and you’re pointing it towards something, and even just taking the tiniest actions towards it, then you’re doing good! You’re doing the best that you can in that moment, and that’s what matters.
Kay:
Our mentor and friend John Maxwell teaches that everything that you want is uphill, and that if you want to go in the direction of your dreams, that it’s going to be an uphill climb…which means – it’s going to be difficult! But, oftentimes, many of us think that that it’s an uphill climb only, and that if we stop on that climb, that we’ll just sit there trying to catch or breath, or get stuck in limbo enjoying the view for a couple of years, but that’s not quite how life works…
Shi:
Well, if you are in our private Facebook group called “Living Your QUEST Life”, we are so happy to have you as a part of the community over there. And, if you’re not, type in “Living Your QUEST Life” into the Facebook search bar and ask to join the group, because we’d love to have you there! It’s where we develop our new teachings and, recently, in that group, we’ve been developing a QUESTion teaching. And one of the strategies that we share is really reframing your dialogue in order to ask yourself empowering questions when you get into these moments of hopelessness, inaction, difficulty, challenge, or doubt. With one of those questions being: “What can I do?” So, asking yourself a question like, “What can I do?” helps us identify what that metaphorical crawling – or walking – or running – is going to be for us. Because, most likely, the dream is to “fly” – (in whatever way that means to you) – but the reality is, we have to start by “crawling”. And so – asking, “What can I do?” helps us figure out how to do that.
Kay:
Well, it’s those little steps along the way that are so important! When you’re going up the mountain, it can be really hard to keep going in that direction. But, if you stop at any point, the rock doesn’t keep moving up the mountain. If the round wheel stops on the mountain, it goes backwards. It doesn’t just stay stagnant. It moves in the opposite direction of the thing that you’re looking for. So, even if it’s a little step, “What can I do?” is a great question to start with, when you feel like I don’t know WHAT to do. Because, if you do stop all movement completely, you might risk backsliding down that mountain!
Shi:
Yep. And Tony Robbins says progress equals happiness. And so, it’s not about how MUCH progress, because any progress is progress. And that’s what MLK is saying here too…that we just want to make some kind of progress up that mountain so we don’t start backsliding. Rachel Hollis had a virtual conference recently that we got to sit in on, and she used this really cool imagery of our mindsets being on the Potter’s wheel. And, as long as we have our mindset on this Potter’s wheel, we can mold it, and shape it, into whatever we want! And, we can decide what that shape looks like – and we can add more water – and we can spin faster or slower….And a lot of us realize that when we take that thing off of the Potter’s wheel and put it into the kiln, that it’s going to dry in that position, right? For example, I made a coffee cup, and now it’s dried and fired into this position as a coffee cup! But, what gets us more often is that instead of deciding to take it off the Potter’s wheel and put it in the kiln, we often decide to just walk away from the Potter’s wheel for awhile…(AKA we decide to stop crawling or making any progress at all)…and, when we walk away from it, that lump of clay will dry in whatever shape that it was left in on the wheel. So, realizing that it really is about even tiny progress, and not letting our lump of clay dry – or the mountain start backsliding – or whatever metaphor we want to use here – is really what it’s about. Because, what MLK is really telling us is that the progress equals happiness, and whatever it is that you CAN do is what is right for you!
Kay:
Look: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” SO – with that – today’s quest is: What’s one little thing that you could do today to move forward in an area of your life, (even if it’s just an inch to start)! What’s one step you can take today?
Shi:
Happy Wednesday, and happy questing!
