In 1939, the government of the United Kingdom published a motivational poster intending to boost the morale of the public going into World War II. The poster simply read, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” This admonition feels potent and poetic. This single line of text encapsulates inspirational and motivational advice along the same lines of other well known aphorism: “Stay the course,” “gird up your loins.” (Get yourself ready), or “screw your courage to the sticking place.”
A life intentionally lived inevitably encounters challenges. If you are not being challenged in some way, it is very likely you are not living up to your potential. Stress naturally accompanies challenges. Properly apportioned, challenges feed growth, but only when one stays the course and sticks with the challenge to the end. This often means enduring uncomfortable moments, facing stressful obstacles, and carrying on. Thus, the admonition, “Keep Calm and Carry On,” is both potent and profound.
Let’s look at how this is applied to daily life. Let’s say your goal is to be successful in your career. Let’s say the challenges that arise out of this goal is that you face competition, uncomfortable criticism, and feelings of incompetence. And these challenges are relentless and present feelings of fear, stress, and unworthiness. Yet, you absolutely know that the only way to eventually achieve your goal is to daily face and overcome these challenges.
The admonition to, “Keep Calm,” reminds you to recognize, reduce, and redirect your stresses and fears. Stress is part of the game, you can’t eliminate it without eliminating the source of the stress and hence the opportunity for growth. The only way to be completely stress free is to never drive to do anything or hold any ambitions. The more excellent alternative is to manage stress. Use your wisdom and knowledge to lower its effect on you. More on stress management another day.
The admonition to, “Carry On,” reminds you to stay the course, to stick with it, to continue. It means to focus. It means to decide what you want in life and then to stick with that plan in life. If you continually change the goal post, you’ll never achieve anything in life. You need enough time working on any matter to see it through to the end. “Carry On,” also means to soldier on, to endure, to suffer the temporary sacrifices, the mundane and unpleasant tasks, and the daily grind that is so often the required price to achieve any goal.
So, when you set out in life to achieve something important to you and you hit a rough patch, “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
What do you think about this principle? Do you agree? Do you have personal experience from applying this principle?
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On?wprov=sfti1