10 Truths To Keep You Going When Everything Goes Wrong

This popped up in my feed from http://www.marcandangel.com and I thought what an amazingly inspirational column to share with y’all!.. Have a great week…

1. What happened to you in the past is not happening now. – In the present moment, we all have some kind of pain: anger, sadness, frustration, disappointment, regret, etc.  Notice this pain within yourself, watch it closely and see that it’s caused by whatever story you have in your head about what happened in the past (either in the recent past or in the distant past).  Your mind might insist that the pain you feel is caused by what happened (not by the story in your head about it), but what happened in the past is NOT happening right now.  It’s over.  It has passed.  The pain, however, is still happening right now because of the story you’ve been subconsciously telling yourself about that past incident.  It’s simply a process of your thinking.  Do your best to see it for what it is.

2. Life changes from moment to moment, and so can you. – When hard times hit there’s a tendency to extrapolate and assume the future holds more of the same.  For some strange reason this doesn’t happen as much when things are going well.  A laugh, a smile, and a warm fuzzy feeling are fleeting and we know it.  We take the good times at face value in the moment for all they’re worth and then we let them go.  But when we’re depressed, struggling, or fearful, it’s easy to heap on more pain by assuming tomorrow will be exactly like today.  This is a cyclical, self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you don’t allow yourself to move past what happened, what was said, what was felt, you will look at your future through that same dirty lens, and nothing will be able to focus your foggy judgment.  You will keep on justifying, reliving, and fueling a perception that is worn out and false.

3. You can fight and win the battles of today, only. – No matter what’s happening, you can resourcefully fight the battles of just one day.  It’s only when you add the battles of those two mind-bending eternities, yesterday and tomorrow, that life gets overwhelmingly painful and complicated.

4. Not being “OK” all the time is normal. – Sometimes not being OK is all we can register inside our tired brains and aching hearts.  This emotion is human, and accepting it can feel like a small weight lifted.  Truth be told, it’s not OK when someone you care about is no longer living and breathing and giving their amazing gifts to the world.  It’s not OK when everything falls apart and you’re buried deep in the wreckage of a life you had planned for.  It’s not OK when the bank account is nearly at zero, with no clear sign of a promising income opportunity.  It’s not OK when someone you trusted betrays you and breaks your heart.  It’s not OK when you’re emotionally drained to the point that you can’t get yourself out of bed in the morning.  It’s not OK when you’re engulfed in failure or shame or a grief like you’ve never known before.  Whatever your painful season of life consists of, sometimes it’s just NOT OK right now.  And that realization is more than OK.

5. Now that you know better, you can do better next time. – At some point, we’ve all been walked on, used and forgotten.  We’ve let people take advantage of us, and we’ve accepted way less than we deserve.  But we shouldn’t regret one moment of it, because in those moments we’ve learned a lot from our bad choices.  We’ve learned who we can trust and who we can’t.  We’ve learned the meaning of friendship.  We’ve learned how to tell when people are lying and when they’re sincere.  We’ve learned how to be ourselves, and appreciate the truly great people and things in our lives as they arrive.  And even though there are some things we can never recover and people who will never be sorry, we now know better for next time.

6. Nobody wins a game of chess, or the game of life, by only moving forward. – Sometimes you have to move backward to put yourself in a position to win.  Because sometimes, when it feels like you’re running into one dead end after another, it’s actually a sign that you’re not on the right path.  Maybe you were meant to hang a left back when you took a right, and that’s perfectly fine.  Life gradually teaches us that U-turns are allowed.  Turn around when you must!  There’s a big difference between giving up and starting over in the right direction.

7. Every “goodbye” leads to a “hello.”– What you need to realize is that most things are only a part of your life because you keep thinking about them.  Stop holding on to what hurts, and make room for what feels right!  Do not let what is out of your control interfere with all the things you can control.  In other words, say “goodbye” to what didn’t work out so you can say “hello” to what might.  In life, goodbyes are a gift.  When certain people walk away from you, and certain opportunities close their doors on you, there is no need to hold on to them or pray to keep them present in your life.  If they close you out, take it as a direct indication that these people, circumstances and opportunities are not part of the next chapter in your life.  It’s a hint that your personal growth requires someone different or something more, and life is simply making room.

8. The willingness to struggle opens great windows of opportunity. – One of the most important abilities you can develop in life is the willingness to accept and grow through times of difficulty and discomfort.  Because the best things are often hard to come by, at least initially.  And if you shy away from difficulty and discomfort, you’ll miss out on them entirely.  Mastering a new skill is hard.  Building a business is hard.  Writing a book is hard.  A marriage is hard.  Parenting is hard.  Staying healthy is hard.  But all are amazing and worth every bit of effort you can muster.  Realize this now.  If you get good at struggling forward and doing hard things, you can do almost anything you put your mind to.

9. The biggest problem is often the way you’re thinking about the problem. – Think about a self-limiting belief you have—an area of your life where you believe you are destined to remain stuck.  It can be about any part of your life you hope to change—your weight, your career, your relationships—anything at all.  What’s one thing you’ve essentially decided is a fact about your position on Earth?  And then I want you to shift gears and think about ONE time, one fleeting moment, in which the opposite of that “fact” was true for you.  I don’t care how tiny of a victory it was, or even if it was a partial victory.  What’s one moment in time you can look back on and say, “Hey, that was totally unlike ‘me,’ but I did it!”?  Once you identify the cracks in the wall of a self-limiting belief, you can start attacking it.  You can start taking steps forward every day that go against it—positive daily rituals that create more tiny victories, more confidence, gradual momentum, bigger victories, even more confidence, and so on.

10. Small, incremental changes always change everything in the long run.– The concept of taking it one step at a time might seem absurdly obvious, but at some point we all get caught up in the moment and find ourselves yearning for instant gratification.  We want what we want, and we want it now!  We want to feel better, we want more progress, etc.  And this yearning often tricks us into biting off more than we can chew.  So, remind yourself: you can’t lift a thousand pounds all at once, yet you can easily lift one pound a thousand times.  Tiny, repeated efforts will get you there, gradually.