You’re in the midst of routine, life seems to be flowing as it should then something happens that tilts your world off of it’s axis. A car accident, a death, losing a job; any number of circumstances can throw a routine life into a bit of a tailspin. Grieving these life catastrophes can set you back from where you want to be and you can find it difficult to get back to the hard work needed to push your life forward.

Many of you have been there. I’ve been there, very recently. At the start of 2017 life was going strong, looking for a new job, knowing mine was moving, working on my schoolwork to earn my MBA, life seemed to be going well. Spring came, life was going full force, and I found out I was expecting.

I was excited! The timing wasn’t perfect but my husband and I had been wanting to expand our family for a while. We knew we’d figure out the logistics with time. Then, in the midst of making bright plans for our future, everything went dark.

Life stopped and grief took over as I lost my sweet baby. I’ve been through a lot in life and I thought nothing would ever match the pain of trials from the first half of my life, but I was wrong. There is no description for a mother who has lost a child because the pain is too much to put into words.

Miscarriage. Even typing the word two months later still hurts. All of that grief and pain has put a large roadblock in my path moving forward with life. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been there, but grieving something you long for but can’t have makes it hard to work towards what you know you can have.

I put school on hold. I tried to keep up with the job hunt but found it difficult to focus. I was barely keeping my head above water at work. How was I suppose to live when I had to live without my baby?

I still don’t have the answer to that question, but after two months I feel I’m finally, slowly moving forward. I went through a few job interviews. I sent out a few more resumes. I even restarted the work on the final projects for my communications course.

There’s no one secret to finding motivation in the midst of your grief, you just have to put one foot in front of the other and start moving. It’s slow going but soon enough a new normal will appear and a new driving motivation will help increase the pace. Life will never be exactly the same, but new dreams and goals will come and new successes are still out there to be had.

Today, I’ll remember my baby Kamin and move forward again, one foot in front of the other.

How are you moving forward from your latest life changing event? What has been your motivation? Tell me in the comments.