MLK Day 2021

“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.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, we celebrate one of history’s greatest civil rights activists, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There are so many things to learn from this legend, but today we’re focusing on one: Keep Moving Forward™ and how this relates to all of us.

We believe in the power of resilience, which is what inspired us adopt Keep Moving Forward™ as our slogan.

The quote above by MLK is one of his many motivating ones. So what does it mean to Keep Moving Forward™? 

Failure is an inevitable part of life and it can leave even the best of us lacking something - a driving force that gives us a push and propels us to move forward in life. But how do we find this motivation and learn from our past failures and mistakes? Johnny Cash said it best “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

Here are some tips we think can keep motivation alive:

Make failure your teacher

Yes, failing at something can be disappointing and sometimes downright devastating. But instead fo dwelling on it, acknowledge those emotions and make sure to find the lessons of that failure. You’ll come back better next time.

Stay well-grounded

When going through failure, we can sometimes experience a sense of being un-grounded, which can make it difficult to move forward. Our recommendation is to make a few simples things part of your life: 

Meditate

10 minutes of meditation each day can help you find your ground and stay focused. There are some great apps like Calm and Headspace to get your started. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. 

Change your body language

Our body language has a lot of influence on the way we feel or thinks. Therefore whenever we find ourself losing confidence a change in our posture can really be helpful. Some examples of powerful postures are: leaning back with hands behind the head, standing with legs wide open with hands on your waist.

Change your environment

There’s an old Mexican proverb that says “tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are”. Positive people emit positivity and negative people emit negativity. Therefore to keep yourself motivated it is important that we stay with people that are positive.

Stay healthy and active

It’s no secret that the more you take care of your physical health, the better your mental state and your performance will be. Focus on eating more plants and sleeping well (7-9 hours a night), keep yourself hydrated, go out for walks and get fresh air. Fresh air gets you more oxygen that makes the brain more productive.

Self Motivational Talk

Sometimes we have a lot of thoughts running in our mind and are are overthinking too much, which makes the situation complicated. In this scenario we can engage in self talk by saying out loud the things that are bothering us and go one by one. These talks are helpful when they focus on the positives and when one believes in themselves. Things like “I got this”, “I will figure it out”, “This seems to be attainable” are motivational lines that should be emphasised on.

We like to keep a positive outlook and believe there is no such thing as failures or mistakes, only lessons. 

Remember, life is not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and still manage to get up and Keep Moving Forward™. Happy MLK Day.

Photo by Jerónimo Bernot.