Over various points, I have thought about what influences how well you can do in something and what you can achieve. I was thinking more particularly about all those moments where it all seems undoable and you want to give up on what you are working towards. The really hard points where you can lose the reason why you started in the first place and it all feels uphill. The defining moments where if you choose to carry on, it could be the difference between you achieving something or not achieving it.

I feel like a lot of the time when things get really tough, or we are really being stretched to our limit, we can convince ourselves that things are simply not doable. That we are already too far in and it is too late to be able to achieve something we want. However, it never is too late to actually do something until it is. I sometimes think we can give up / lose all hope when we still have options because things are a lot harder than they should be. We can have a time limit closely approaching. It can feel like when we are very close to a deadline, that we have run out of time or can no longer do anything, but the reality is we can and still have options until that deadline has passed. Choosing to keep going and change what we can is the difference between being able to reach your goal sometimes or not. No matter how hard it is, when you keep going there is a way (even if sometimes that means some things not going to plan).

More things are possible than you can imagine if you are willing enough to keep going, even when all seems lost. My summer law schools exams taught me this in May/June 2021. I had not been able to do even half as much work as I wanted to because of personal reasons and things happening at the time. When exam season came around and the revision I had done was next to nothing, I couldn’t see how I would be able to manage so close to the exams. The situation I found myself in gave me more than enough reasons to fail. But, convincing myself that I could use the time I had despite my circumstances and keep pushing was the difference between me doing well overall and not (even if one of my exams did not go to plan). That although my situation was far from ideal and I had every reason to fail, my circumstances would not be what stopped me. I could have given in and thought it was already too late - that trying to change things was hopeless at that stage and to be honest, the thought did cross my mind. But, choosing to continue when all felt lost surprised me at what I could achieve when I refused to give up.

What I am trying to put across is sometimes when faced with far from ideal circumstances, we can self sabotage ourselves more by convincing ourselves that things are no longer possible. But, they are, even if it is 1000x harder. There is a way and it is not too late until it is. So if you are currently in a situation where it feels like all you realistically can aspire to is to fail, this is your reminder that you can and still have options available to you until you don’t. So exhaust all your options and don’t throw it all down the drain. Don’t limit yourself before you are told no. Sometimes it’ll still go wrong, but other times we can surprise ourselves.