Now here is where things can get a little complicated to understand. “STUMBLING BLOCKS” can be “STEPPING STONES” and “STEPPING STONES” can be “STUMBLING BLOCKS”

Today! I consider myself to be your “STEPPING STONE” to change.

I am tasked with empowering you, inspiring you, encouraging you. Now, just because I say this is my task doesn’t mean that you will take it that way, in fact you may completely disagree and disregard everything I have to stay turning me into a “STUMBLING BLOCK” for you. Or, Until this moment, before I wrote these words you thought me to be a “STUMBLING BLOCK” for you but now that you are reading this and you hear and see the truth in it I am no longer that but now a “STEPPING STONE” so that you can move forward to be this; to someone else.

“STEPPING STONES” are people, places and things that uplift you, inspire you and help you become successful in life. Whether that success is professional or whether that success is personal. “STEPPING STONES” give you the courage to take chances, encourage you to follow your dreams, support you and catch you when you fail, hug you and help you to get back up, when you fall or just remind you and guide you to the light at the end of the tunnel. “STEPPING STONES” have nothing to gain and expect nothing in return.

“STUMBLING BLOCKS” are people, places and things that hinder you, discourage you and expose your faults. “STUMBLING BLOCKS” tell you that you can’t do the impossible. They remind you of the negative things they have faced and express all of the bad things that can happen when you want to try something new. They try to make all of the negative things sound like positive things and remind you of what the challenges will be. They encourage your fears and though they may be right by your side every step of the way, the moment your challenges becomes hard they comfort those fears and encourage them to grow.

Listen, everyone who enters into your life from your family, your friends, your neighbors and YES! even to your co-workers fall into being a “STEPPING STONE or STUMBLING BLOCK”. Either they are your “STEPPING STONE” or they will be your “STUMBLING BLOCK”. The key is to make yourself aware of which one they are and to remind yourself daily which one of these you are to others. Because whether you agree or not you need the stumbling blocks in your life so that you can recognize who the stepping stones are.

What are you in your own life AND in the lives of others? Are there things that you want to accomplish like going back to school, applying for a promotion within your company but are afraid of what others will say or talk yourself out of it because you know you won’t get it? (STUMBLING BLOCK). Are you your own inspiration (STEPPING STONE) or do you sit by and wait for others to encourage you?(STUMBLING BLOCK) When someone tells you of something they are proud of or tells you of an accomplishment do you say “That’s great” (STUMBLING BLOCK), or do you dance in their celebration with them and encourage them to keep dancing (STEPPING STONE)!

What are you in your relationships? Do you inspire your significant others and give them the freedom to follow their dreams while supporting and encouraging them even when they fail? (STEPPING STONE) or Do you remind them of the number of things they have failed at before?(STUMBLING BLOCK).

Yesterday, what WERE you a “Stepping stone or a stumbling block”? Today, what ARE you a “Stepping stone or a stumbling block”? Tomorrow, what WILL you be to yourself and to others around you a “STEPPING STONE” or a “STUMBLING BLOCK”.

Every persons, place and thing that comes into your life should be a “STEPPING STONE” to and for you. The minutes that you realize and recognize that they and/or you are a “STUMBLING BLOCK” instead, you MUST, HAVE TO decide whether you are going to allow it, them or yourself to remain a “STUMBLING BLOCK” or turn the situation, the circumstance into a “STEPPING STONE”

previously published privately on Facebook

written by: Martha J. Black