Triumphant

Triumphant

Definition: Successful

Synonyms: elated, glorious, happy, jubilant, on top, proud, victorious

Antonyms: defeated, failing, losing, unsuccessful

Picture this: You have just finished a five mile run. Yet, up until today you had just been jogging four miles. When you first set out, at half a mile per day, your goal was to work your way into the five mile range. Sweat beading on your forehead, feet throbbing in your latest Nike footwear you come to a stop and stretch your aching calves. How do you feel? Triumphant! You have achieved your goal.

Picture this: You have been moping around the house for days. It takes every ounce of strength just to get out of bed, but you do it anyway. You eat breakfast, or is it considered lunch, I mean it is one o`clock in the afternoon. You shower, get dressed, and plop yourself in front of the television set. Your feet form puddles of sweat on the floor and your head throbs beneath your freshly shampooed hair. When you first set out, your goal was to at least get out of bed, then shower. How do you feel? Probably like what you have accomplished is not enough. Yet, you should be feeling triumphant, so why aren’t you? Could it be that you believe that emotions such as successful, aka triumphant, are reserved for those people who achieve “BIG” things. Is it possible that we have been programmed from an early age to believe this foolishness? Probably. The truth is that we deserve to feel these powerful, positive emotions every day because of all the things we do, big or small. Sometimes the smallest achievements make the biggest difference and this is what we need to re-program ourselves to believe.

I’m female, so I am going to bring up PMS as an example. If you do not know what PMS (aka pre-menstrual syndrome) is, feel free to get a definition from the dictionary. J PMS hits me hard sometimes, and this morning as I waited for my coffee to brew, I looked over to the other side of the kitchen at the empty bowl my doggies drink out of. “Fill me,” it screeched, “but, but,” I screeched back, “how am I supposed to walk all the way over there?” I simply felt like I could not move. After getting through the morning basics, may I mention in double the time it usually takes me, I made a to do list for the day and I gave myself permission to do only two or three of the eight things I wrote down. OK the truth is that achieving just one thing would bring me feelings of triumph. J I went on to do that one thing, then I found myself completing another, then another. The more triumphant I felt, the more energy I had, the more I achieved. As I write, I notice that everything on my list has been crossed off.

Picture this; People who feel triumphant continue to achieve success because they refuse to entertain feelings of failing, losing, and feeling defeated for long periods of time. I know that at one time or another we have all felt like running away. There may be times when we feel like there is just no way to crawl out of the hole our desperate, negative feeling have dug us into. If however, you are anything like me, you have crawled out many times, and for that crawl alone you should allow yourself to feel triumphant. Often in life it is never about the destination, it is about the “crawl”. It is during the crawl that the thought of change first occurs to us. It is during the crawl that we first begin to see the light of triumphant shining in the distance.

Rule One: You do not need to stand on top of the world to feel triumphant; all you need to stand on is your own two feet. Your elbows and your knees may also be enough to get you started on the crawl.

Rule Two: Give yourself a break. Small successes everyday are more rewarding than one big achievement in a lifetime.

PS.

I wrote all of this two mornings ago, believing that I would be blogging it that afternoon. As it turned out, one thing led to another, the day got busy, my plans changed, PMS got my legs and my fingers, and at the end of 48 hours I found myself feeling anything but triumphant. I felt defeated. This morning I crawled out of bed, dragged myself into the shower, and twenty minutes later, coffee and cigarette in hand, I reminded myself about choices. I quickly took responsibility for mine and decided to feel Triumphant right there and then. Sure enough, within minutes, feelings of success and victory began to linger at the corners of my mind. I let them enter and here I am blogging away.

Rule Three: Failing allows you another chance at success. Allow yourself to do both because both can be rewarding.

Picture this; aware of how you have failed to live up to your commitments in the past you are forcing yourself to finish something on time. In your rush to get it done you achieve nothing at all. You get lost in the world of finishing, and forget to credit yourself for beginning it in the first place. How do you get back on track? You wipe the sweat off your eyebrow, massage your tired feet, and you allow yourself to feel successful, triumphant, and victorious for the simple fact that you are even aware of what is going on in your life right now. You remind yourself that you are human, and if necessary, you crawl on your elbows and knees to the finish line, but you never stop feeling triumphant, no matter how long it takes you to get there. It took me much longer than I thought it would to get this emotion blogged. I basically crawled to the finish line.  I made it because I chose to believe this;

Rule Four: Choose to feel Triumphant, especially when your mind begins to entertain feelings of failing. Small achievements often make the biggest difference.

Rule Five: A marathon participant may never make it to the finish line. Triumphant occurs in the simply fact that they took the first step.