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Life consists of ups and downs. No matter how much you shield yourself, sooner or later, you will have to face hardships.
However, hard times also have something positive about them. You grow as you experience them. They make you a stronger and better person.
Yes, tough times are often very painful, and it can be hard to see them in any positive light whatsoever when you are experiencing them.
That’s where this article will help.
The following list will help you not only to prepare yourself mentally but, more importantly, train yourself to see the hard times in a more positive light.
So get yourself a comfortable seat and open your mind to rethink your opinions on these problems.
1. Failure
If you have never experienced any kind of failure in your life, I’d be seriously worried. That would imply that you’ve never tried something new and that the people around you are not honest with you.
Failure is simply part of life. There is no growth in life without failure. A good metaphor for that is the heart rate monitors you can see in those hospital series.
If the heart beats steadily, the line goes up and down and up and down.
Everything is fine. If something good or bad happens, the heartbeat may pick up its pace, and the ups and downs will be higher and lower, but still, it only shows that the person is alive.
However, when they die, the line is suddenly flat.
Life is meant to have ups and downs, successes, and failures. If it would all follow a straight path, we wouldn’t be living.
Whenever you face failure, there are two things you need to remember:
- Failure means that you’ve lived. You have had an experience. Use it to learn valuable life lessons and move on.
- Failure brings you one step closer to success. There isn’t one successful person out there that hasn’t failed along the way. In some cases, those failures have been absolutely shattering. Still, successful people move on and keep up the hard work, and so can you!
2. Death of a Loved One
Whether it is your grandparents, parents, siblings, friends, or pets, sooner or later, you will be confronted with one of them passing away.
Sometimes it will come out of nowhere and will disrupt your whole world.
Other times, it is the result of a long and arduous battle with health issues, and you might at least find some solace in the knowledge that they don’t have to suffer anymore.
Whatever the situation, losing a loved one brings immense pain; there is no sugarcoating that.
However, you should remind yourself that this pain, too, will pass to a great extent. Think about all these people worldwide who have lost loved ones and managed to still make life worth living.
But most importantly, take this as a reminder to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones.
Earning money is significant and rewarding, but if it comes at the cost of losing too much of the precious time with the people you hold dear, what is it all for?
From this tragedy on, maybe you can finally commit to at least calling each of your loved ones once a week. Maybe commit to meeting them at least once a month.
Just try to spend as much time with them as possible so that when this hardship comes, none of you has any regrets.
3. Someone Betrays your Trust
There probably will come a moment in your life when someone betrays your trust.
Whether it is a friend bitching behind your back, your significant other cheating on you, or your child throwing a house party when you trusted them to take care of their younger sibling.
You will feel hurt, disappointed, insecure, or angry if that moment comes.
You might scold yourself for ever having placed that trust. And you will have to ask yourself, is this temporary pain enough of a reason to never trust again?
The answer to that should be NO. What would life be like without trust? I don’t imagine it very fulfilling. We all need a support system, and that requires a certain level of trust.
Take this hardship as it is, and learn your lesson from it. Depending on how deeply the betrayal was, you might have to let go of that person.
If they were willing to exploit your trust to such an extent, then they are not worth your love and time. Your life will be better without them.
However, if you are willing to forgive them, this might be the beginning of a deeper relationship.
Yes, it will take a lot of effort to work through those new trust issues, but it will be worth it if it is the right person.
4. Physical Pain
Again, if you have never experienced this, you might not live life to the fullest.
Physical pain hurts like hell! Everybody who has had the pleasure of stubbing their toe knows that.
However, physical pain can also be a good thing. It shows you how much you can endure, which is a hell of a lot more than you probably think.
And it also brings back some awareness regarding the importance of your beautiful body.
Take care of it! Because it enables you to live this beautiful life.
5. Emotional Distress
If you are trying to achieve big things, you will have to deal with stress, overwhelm, anxiety, depression, disappointment, doubt, guilt, and many more negative emotions.
However, just like failure, they are absolutely worth it! If a temporary unease is a price to pay for an extraordinary life, then that is a meager price.
If you commit to mastering your emotions and dedicating time to self-care, you will come out of your emotional distress as a stronger and more resilient person. You will develop inner strength that will be one of your most powerful assets in the future.
The mountains you are now able to climb are much bigger than before.
6. Aging
Our modern society has become very bad at handling aging. People view it as the decay of beauty, health, strength, abilities, and intellect.
Nowadays, thousands of people frantically jump to Botox as soon as they notice the first wrinkles appear; others refuse to talk about their age or even lie about it.
As many ancient cultures did, we finally need to see aging as something positive again.
Aging comes with increased patience, spiritual awareness, and wisdom.
And if you take care of yourself mentally and physically, you can be way more athletic and smart than most of the elderly people we see around us daily.
You only need to do some research on it. There are so many old people out there who can still live an incredible life.
I recently watched a documentary showing an over 100-year-old Chinese man who rides around the village with his bicycle daily.
I can’t even imagine some 80-year-olds riding a bicycle!
Let this remind you that you can influence the kind of life you will live in 40, 50, or 60 years.
Every time you fear aging, let that remind you to live healthily.
And start believing that you will become a healthy and happy 100-year-old person. Your thoughts shape your reality. If you expect to be a rickety
80-year-old, guess how you will end up.
It has never been as easy as nowadays with biotechnology and easy access to health tips to live a long and healthy life. Use that to your advantage!
7. You Hurt Someone
One day or another, you will hurt someone. For example, you might hurt them with the careless words you spoke, disappoint them with your actions, or actually injure them physically by accident.
It will probably make you feel guilty, and you will scold yourself for it, but you should never ever lose yourself in regret.
Always remember: We make mistakes; that’s what makes us human. No human being is ever perfect.
What counts is that you make up for it with your actions afterward. Don’t just apologize. Prove that you are genuinely sorry and work on yourself never to make it happen again.
By the way, you might be interested in 15 Ways To Live A Life You Won’t Regret.
8. Difficult Family Members
As much as family is a blessing, most people have at least one rather difficult family member.
And yes, they can push your buttons like nobody else, but still, they are family. And instead of getting frustrated with their behavior, we should let it remind us to be grateful.
In Sacred Powers, davidji has said it best. He writes about how we should take every annoying behavior of our loved ones as “evidence of presence.”
One day, this loved one will be gone. Would they annoy you as much if you knew they would be gone from your life tomorrow? Still, I understand that this is not the best choice for every situation. Sometimes, it is important for your mental health and our happiness to cut a family member out of your life. But at least try to change your mindset beforehand.
Read also: Reading List for Personal Growth
9. Feeling Lost
Sometimes, it doesn’t require difficult life events to create hardships. Instead, you will look around you at one point in your life and simply feel lost. You will ask yourself what you are doing, what you really want in life, and if you are on the right track.
First of all, don’t despair! As quickly as this feeling can come, it can also disappear. However, don’t just wait for it to pass. Instead, take this feeling as a sign to think about your direction in life.
And yes, that might be scary, but it can lead to a happy life.
As you face this feeling of being lost, you will have to ask yourself one important question: Am I happy?
And if the answer is No, you have to ask yourself what you would want life to be like to be truly happy. You need to analyze your current situation from a new perspective.
If you are interested in similar questions to ask yourself, look at other Life-Changing Questions You Should Ask Yourself.
10. Financial Hardships
Facing financial hardship is an inevitable part of adult life, pushing us into some of the toughest situations we encounter in our daily lives. It’s during these challenging moments that we often discover the best ways to emerge as a stronger person.
Coping with a difficult financial situation can be one of the hardest things we grapple with, as it forces us to confront some of the not-so-great aspects of life.
However, these trials become opportunities for growth, teaching us valuable lessons in budgeting, saving, and resourcefulness, ultimately shaping our financial acumen and making us more resilient in the face of adversity.
Those were the 10 Hardships You Have To Face In Life; I hope this list gives you the courage to face the difficult times ahead.
You should always remember that every moment can be good or bad; it depends on your mindset.
And if you are a bit more spiritual, it also helps to remember that the universe has reasons for sending you specific experiences. You might not be able to see it yet, but they will lead you towards a better life.
As always, I hope you keep creating the extraordinary life of your dreams; I believe in you!
Until next time, Felicity Seeker!
