It’s hard to argue with the laws of nature. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This seems to apply to our own lives as well. When you try and make a positive change in your life, you have forward momentum for a while. You push forward, make progress, grow as a person, do things that you didn’t think you were capable of.

But then, just as you feel yourself reaching your highest heights, something happens. You feel yourself slipping backwards. Like a rubber-band collapsing back you feel pieces of your old self creeping back in. The voice inside you starts whispering doubts in your ear. You begin to wonder how you even did it in the first place. You worry about being able to keep it up. You start going back into your shell, your comfort zone.

It’s a natural thing. There is something about us that resists change, even when it’s positive. There is some odd part of us that wants to sabotage success. Maybe it’s that the weight of expectation is more difficult to bear than being the underdog and surprising people when you accomplish something.

The thing about a rubber-band, though, is it snaps. If you push and stretch yourself long enough, you can break through that haze of doubt that accumulates around you. Every time you resist the urge to fall back, the voices get a little quieter. The whispers mean less and less. You remind yourself that your progress is real, it’s something that you did to get here and that you have it in you to keep going. The doubts are the figments. They burn away like a fog under the light of the sun.