Thank you, next.
Sigh.
Some people just don’t get it.
The energy they put into trying to ruin someone else...
Is the same energy they could put to work on themselves...
And since energy is neither created or destroyed
It’s actually a terrible miscalculation that your life will somehow be better off with you using your available resources to negatively influence or impact someone else’s life.
Of course you get that back.
But that should scare a person.
Constantly putting shit into the ether.
The whole “you reap what you sow” isn’t a paradigm that gets applied sporadically and randomly.
It’s law.
Karma.
Actions have consequences.
Every
single
one.
Every. Single. Time
With or without your awareness.
That’s why people who have been wronged make the most progress in their healing
Not by defaming or decrying the people who have hurt them
But by channeling that energy back into themselves
That’s not to say they don’t speak up, or respond or share their experience
I mean to say, that a person who really cares about getting or taking their life back, turning their life around, or whatever you want to call it isn’t waking up or lying down in the role of beleaguered victim.
But is driven by the “what nexts” of their new chapter.
There’s an energetic shift in perspective when a person responds to circumstances in the present with “ok what’s next” responses rather than, “but what about” responses.
Whataboutism will probably be added to the dictionary soon...
Because we can’t talk about policing in America and African American men disproportionately dying in those encounters without the refrain
But what about...black on black crime?
We can’t talk about misdeeds of this current administration without the inevitable...
What about...her emails?
We can’t have a discussion about celebrities like Bill Cosby being rightfully prosecuted without people saying
But what about....Harvey Weinstein?
This works differently in the world of sport. People never cease to stop asking “what’s next” of us.
I had only made it ten meters into the mixed zone in Rio after the Long jump when I was asked that question.
What’s next Tianna?
Tokyo?
By and large athletes don’t ask themselves this “what next” question....
not in the ways we need to.
Like looking at a performance and identifying next steps based on that info...
Or understanding training goals and cycles and making effective adjustments...
Or knowing your career is coming to an end so you start working on things you might like to do next...
You know...things like that.
We do, however, “but what about” ourselves to death:
But what about the new standards?
What about the reductions?
What about the diamond league rules?
What about the world champs being in October?
What about last season?
Damn it.
WHAT ABOUT IT????
It’s the people who are typically focused on things outside of their control that obsess incessantly on this line of inquiry.
Because people who focus on their controllables ask themselves “what next”.
And they put their energy there.
Because the only thing we can actually control is ourselves...
And some of us can’t even do that well...
Can’t even break the cycle of our
Negative thoughts
Fear
Laziness
Bad Habits
And yet...
We elect to take the finite energy we have available to us to explore the “what-abouts” of things outside of ourselves.
Things outside of our control.
Things not as important as leveling up.
Not realizing that to shine that light and that focus INWARD is to know EXACTLY what’s next.
And that energy, that at one time was directed at everyone and everything else, that you now reserve for yourself,
Is like powering up...
Like gathering the seas as the tide pulls away from the shore before a tsunami.
And have you noticed that truly powerful people need not flaunt their power?
Don’t seek to be perceived as powerful?
Don’t need you to even know who or what they are?
That’s because they understand the value of “keeping that energy”
Keep your energy.
While some people will inevitably spend theirs recklessly
You will continue to invest in yourself
Reaping the rewards of taking care of you
Tending to the garden of your soul
Nurturing yourself as you would soil in order to bear good fruit
And when you find yourself falling down the “what about...” rabbit hole answer your own question with this simple reply:
What about it? What’s next?