For many years now, my fellow Reinvention Man, Larry, has made “Never Give Up” his personal motto. Indeed he operates a Facebook page on that very topic – Never Give Up Teachings.

Unfortunately, my natural gloomy personality means that I struggle to live up to this motto at times. Indeed, when Larry was life coaching me, Larry decried my lack of confidence in myself and ease with which I simply gave up, as being my biggest weakness. There’s nothing like shooting oneself in the foot!

All too often, when times get tough, I crack. Alright, my life can be something of a soap opera at times, so it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But it is really something I need to work on.

The important thing to remember is that if you are not dead, then there can still be change. And it is up to you to make certain that any change is a positive change.

There may well be fixed obstacles you can’t avoid along the way, but that just means that you have to include those obstacles in your planning.

Life can certainly have its ups and downs. As a freelance writer, I find that I either have a feast or famine when it comes to working. Only two weeks ago I seemed to have a never-ending list of posts to prepare and pages of copy to craft. I finally come up for breath today, having finished a 9,000-word mega-post for a client, to find that my cupboard is bare. My blogging clients have all gone silent this week, and my copywriting clients don’t need copy written until they have more of their client documentation ready.

At the same time, I need money to pay the rent on a house that has been on the market for three months … and getting a new rental tenancy in New Zealand, particularly when you have an uncertain income, is near-impossible.

I could give up. I could go running back to WINZ (the New Zealand benefit agency), crying, and begging to be put on a benefit again – albeit one so small that I couldn’t pay the house rental anyway. I could simply accept homelessness as being inevitable.

Or I could continue fighting. I could keep reminding myself, “Never Give Up”.

I’ve come too far from my depths of depression in 2013 to give up now. I can write. I will gain contracts again. I just need to put more effort into marketing myself. I still have a flatmate paying his board, so we are still eating. The housing issue is a trickier problem, but I am sure that if I keep a positive outlook, some solution will jump into my head.

I have bad moments, usually in the dead of night, when the night demons arrive and try to persuade me that all is doom and gloom. Last night was one of those nights. But I force myself to ignore those night demons. “Never give up! Never give up!” I repeatedly remind myself.

And then it’s morning. The sun is shining again. I’m still in a comfortable bed. I still have power, food, and the internet. I’m still alive. I can continue to fight; to find solutions.

Larry is right. No matter how dark or bad your personal situation is, you can always fight another day. You just need to break the solutions to your problems down into small manageable action steps, to build your way up.

I may still go backward for a while, temporarily, until I can regroup, re-plan, and achieve action step after action step, no matter how humble they may be. But I will never give up! I will always be searching for a way to move my life forwards and upwards. I will be looking to reinvent myself and meet my dreams.

You can too. Dream. Plan. Never give up!

photo credit: symphony of love Karen Salmansohn As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to turn your life around via photopin (license)