When It's Hard

Every job, every life, sometimes even every day comes with its own challenges.  Some are bigger than others.  Some are pretty small, easily dismissed.  This post is about what happens when the inevitable bigger challenges, the ones that threaten to rock you to your core, arise.

Here are the things I remind myself:

1.  This too shall pass.  No matter how frustrated I may feel in the moment, I will feel better again, probably soon.
2.  I can choose how to respond.
3.  I can't choose how the rest of the world responds.
4.  Listen to my inner voice.  The one that won't quit.  Sometimes it whispers, sometimes it shouts, sometimes it's hard to hear over the roar of the other voices (both mine and others).  Through all of that, just listen to my own instincts.
5.  Acknowledge the things that aren't perfect.  Not necessarily try to change them all, but just acknowledge them.
6.  Later, decide which problems need to be changed.
7.  Acknowledge my own limitations.  Recognize what is in my power to do, and what is not.
8.  Recognize that most of the time, most people are doing the best they can.
9.  Talk it out with people who support me.
10.  While I may not know what I'm going to do in the future, or when a certain situation arises, I have the tools I'll need to figure it out when the time comes.
11.  Choose gratitude.  Choose to remember the things that are great, right now, right here.

I also came across this article the other day that I really like, about how accepting your negative emotions actually leads to more happiness in the end.  I think that's what happens when you are authentically living your life.  I want to share a quote from that article with you that I found really amazing:

“Our contract with life is a contract that is brokered with fragility, and with sadness, and with anxiety. And if we’re going to authentically and meaningfully be in this world, we cannot focus on one dimension of life and expect that focusing on that dimension is going to then give us a well-rounded life.”

What do you think of that quote?  What do you do to overcome the inevitable challenges that life throws your way?