For a person, what is the real significance of strength? Does it mean being powerful or indestructible? Perhaps, for those blessed with such natural attributes.
But to me, it means something deeper—more real—than that. It is being resilient enough to hold up when we’re under pressure or filled with anxiety. To struggle with problems that seem overwhelming. Or persevere when it feels like we can’t go on any more.
Strength is taking a step when we’re tired, or frustrated, or alone. When we’re hurting. It is mustering the ability to do something, to take one step, and then take another one.
The epitome of strength is when someone stays just barely strong enough to hang in there when they are feeling so weak and discouraged that they know they can’t make it on their own anymore.
Because we don’t have to make it on our own, and we don’t have to do life alone.
The strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it. (Rona Barrett)
That goes for you too.
You do not have to make it through life relying only on your own strength. Assistance is available to you, and it can come from helpful resources you can use, from other people, and from God.
Right now, there are useful resources and tools available to help you. The STEPS “Tool Kit for Real Life” is full of proven, powerful techniques you can use to live life better. Your job is simply to select the right solution, find an easy way to get started, and take the next right steps.
Other people can share their strength with you as well. In fact, that is how humans are designed to operate, in community. You are doing the right thing and the best thing to ask for help. That doesn’t make you weak; it makes you normal, and humble, and smart, and strong.
Most importantly, God is there to share his strength with you. The Bible says that, ironically, we are strongest when we are weak. What does that mean? It means that when we are struggling, and we humbly turn to God for help, we get access to a strength that is far greater than our own.
So we can truly say, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
Over the years, my family and I have been through some tough times. We have suffered from deep struggles with depression, anxiety, addiction, financial problems, and family issues.
I mention that to say that I understand things now that I did not used to know. Those trials helped teach me that when I am weak, then I am strong. God is there for me when I have no strength left of my own. I’ve learned that other people are there for me, people who are glad to be of service. And that there are helpful resources I can use with proven wisdom that has worked for others.
I’ve learned that being mature enough, and vulnerable enough, to seek help when we are struggling is the way we are designed to live.
In Next Right STEPS, we talk about how we can seek help from other people and from God. Here, we will focus on how we can use helpful resources such as those in the “Tool Kit for Real Life.”
This is a relatively fast and easy way to start drawing draw strength from proven life principles that can help us take small positive steps forward to live life better. The way we do that is to:
- Select the right solution.
- Make it easy and rewarding.
- Take the next right steps.
No matter what you may be struggling with now, you must know that you are not broken or alone, and there are steps you can take to help you move in a positive direction.
Remember: You do not have to make it through life relying only on your own strength. You can draw strength from other people and from God. And you can get it from helpful resources you can use to live life better, starting today.
The only mistake you can make is not asking for help. (Sandeep Jauhar)
1 – Select the Right Solution
We have seen in our material that we can use our Heart, our Soul, and our Mind to help us take next right steps. In each of those areas, we were given a simple 3-step approach to live life better.
In addition to those daily processes, wouldn’t it be great if we had a convenient supply of the world’s best life improvement techniques we could draw on for strength? The good news is, we do!
We refer to the Next Right STEPS website as a “Tool Kit for Real Life” because, in effect, that is exactly what it is. It includes many easy-to-understand tools and practical wisdom we can all use.
After years of research and decades of studying, I have realized something very helpful: we don’t need any new fads or ideas to live a life of wellness. There are plenty of wise teachings and proven principles that have worked for millions of people around the world for decades, sometimes centuries. All we have to do is learn what they are and put them to use in our lives.
Wellness is an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence. (National Wellness Institute)
I’ll tell you a secret about how STEPS operates: we don’t make this stuff up! We perform secondary research on subject matter experts across a holistic set of disciplines, pull out the most relevant insights, and package that material in easy-to-use tools for people to use.
Which allows anyone using the “Tool Kit for Real Life” to draw on strength of resources such as:
- Modern research in psychology and neuroscience with the latest scientific insights.
- Philosophers who have shared time-proven understanding with others for centuries.
- The best-selling book of all time, the Bible, widely recognized for its universal wisdom.
- Wellness practices that help us take a more holistic, proactive approach to well-being.
- Lessons learned by hundreds of millions of people with lives transformed in recovery.
- Personal development principles that help us put popular insights into practical action.
Across all those areas, STEPS does the work to research what those subject matter experts recommend. We simplify that material into easy-to-use steps that people can take to bolster their strength and solve whatever problems they are facing.
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. (Aldous Huxley)
This “Tool Kit for Real Life” offers proven and useful methodologies, tools, and techniques to help people take next right steps to live life better. All people need to do is to investigate the resources, select what works for them, and choose their Next Right STEPS.
The STEPS material is different because it takes a proactive approach to enhancing our lives and preventing issues, including addiction, from bringing us down. It includes a holistic integration of material across disciplines rather than taking a “silo approach” to solving problems. The resulting content is practical and easy-to-use as well as timeless and universal in its application.
To introduce a short physics lesson, Isaac Newton’s first law of motion states that, “An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion.” That’s what the force of inertia is all about, and both inertia of rest and inertia of motion are powerful forces in our own lives as well.
For example, it can be hard to make a change, to take that first step toward improving our lives. That’s why it is so important to have resources, other people, and God who can help us get going.
Once we get into action, we establish inertia of motion. It becomes easier to stay in motion and use our momentum to keep moving forward. Progress becomes easier, one step at a time.
Let us cultivate our garden. (Voltaire)
2 – Make it Easy and Rewarding
Once we have figured out an area that we want to improve, we can swing the odds in our favor for following through on our commitment. Interestingly, one of the best ways to utilize our strength for taking positive steps is to make those steps as small and simple as possible.
James Clear is a writer and speaker who is focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.
Clear points out the cumulative, long-term positive impact of incremental, step-by-step improvement. He uses math to demonstrate how that works: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you will end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. (James Clear)
The key process discussed in Atomic Habits is “The Four Laws of Behavior Change” which are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are: (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.
We can use a simple version of the Four Laws to design steps to be easy and rewarding. Making a step easy helps us get started readily and overcome the friction of getting into motion (inertia of rest). Making it rewarding helps us keep going so we can leverage inertia of motion.
All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. (James Clear)
Taking positive steps helps us build good habits, and they also lessen the problems we create for ourselves along the way. What are examples of how we make steps easy and rewarding?
- If we want to get in better shape, start by taking short walks at an enjoyable pace.
- To learn to worry less, pick 1 small situation that we will work on simply “letting go.”
- In order to become a better parent, commit to reading 1 useful article each week.
The inverse approach works as well. If we want to discourage an action or habit, rather than making it easy and rewarding, we make it hard and painful. What are some examples?
- When we’re starting a diet, take all the snacks and desserts out of the house.
- Give our spouse and kids permission to call the police if we drink and drive.
- Tell our teenage son that we will give him $100 every time we yell at him.
You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. (James Clear)
James Clear shares a story on Victor Hugo as an example of making something hard and painful:
In the summer of 1830, Victor Hugo was facing an impossible deadline. Twelve months earlier, the French author had promised his publisher a new book. But instead of writing, he spent that year pursuing other projects, entertaining guests, and delaying his work. Frustrated, Hugo’s publisher responded by setting a deadline less than six months away. They declared that the book had to be finished by February 1831.
Hugo concocted a strange plan to beat his procrastination. He collected all of his clothes and asked an assistant to lock them away in a large chest. He was left with nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking any suitable clothing to go outdoors, he remained in his study and wrote furiously during the fall and winter of 1830. The “Hunchback of Notre Dame” was published two weeks early on January 14, 1831.
To summarize, this principle works both ways:
- For positive steps or habits, make them easy and rewarding.
- For negative steps or habits, make them hard and painful.
Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement. (James Clear)
3 – Take the Next Right Steps
The first 2 ways to draw strength from useful resources are to select the right solution from the “Tool Kit for Real Life” and make it easy and rewarding by shaping a small step we can take.
The simplest, and most important, part of our process then follows: take the Next Right STEPS.
That means taking a first small step, and a second, and a third. The more steps we take, the more momentum we build up along the way, and the easier it becomes to stay in motion moving forward.
Until, somewhere along the way, those steps turn into positive habits, which reshape our thinking (and, literally, rewire our brain), which transforms the rest of our lives.
Life is a journey, and we can only take it a step at a time. Each day, life is also a process, one we can continuously improve if we focus on taking the next right steps.
Our journey will be tough at times, and our strength may not seem enough to keep us going. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be, because we can draw strength from helpful resources, other people, and God. We are not broken or alone, and there are steps we can take to get better.
Which, when you get down to it, is what real life is all about.
Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses, and start making changes. (Roy T. Bennett)
Question: Do you want a better life enough to take steps to get there?
Next Right Step: Use the STEPS “Tool Kit for Real Life” to select 1 solution.
