Even when you’re by yourself, you’re not alone. Even when you want to handle things on your own, someone is feeling your struggle. Even when you think you’ve lost the battle, you have cause to celebrate a victory.

Every time you pick yourself up from a fall, you are thrust into victory. No matter what the circumstance that briefly brought you down, the victory lies in your determination to get up and face new challenges. Struggles, obstacles, and challenges are tools provided to ensure that we learn how to persevere. Keep looking up, celebrate your many victorious experiences; you are blazing a path to your goal. It may look rugged and uncertain, but trust that your strength and determination will steer you to victory…and that you are not alone.

While your victory song still plays in your mind, and you are celebrating, use that experience to inspire someone else to hang in there.

We are instruments, and vital players in the struggle to create unity in the world. Compassion connects us to one another in a way that enables us to heal, inspire, and bond. Simply stated, just dare to care—we can surely pull each other through.