Ever heard the saying “Life’s a bitch, and then you die”?
Well some days when it feels as if the whole world is out to get you, that saying starts to make more sense. Its as if the walls are closing in and there is simply not enough oxygen to go around. Maybe it’s the Universe’s way of testing our resolve, but it would be nice if we were given time to study beforehand.
If you’ve ever been in the situation then you know that things can look bleak. Solutions seem few and far between, and the problems never stop rearing their ugly head.
But even when your world is falling apart, there is always a bit of light at the end of the tunnel beckoning you to safety.
If you fall, fall on your back. If you can look up, you can get up. – Les Brown
My life has been a series of restarts.
I seem to go for long periods where things are good and life is on track, only to being knocked so hard in the stomach that I’m left lying on my back staring at the sky waiting for the stars to stop spinning in my eyes.
Sadly, it’s been a horrible cycle that I have yet to fully break out of, but I have learned to lessen the blow and to recover more quickly from each experience.
Since I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one who goes through tough times I thought it might be helpful to share a few lessons I’ve learned over the years that may help you get through your own battles just a bit easier.
1. Always be moving forward
One of the saddest things in life in my opinion is to stay stuck in one place forever. Whether that be physically, mentally or spiritually. This idea that we as a living, breathing, being should never strive to be better, do better, and live fully is truly painful.
This is why for as long as I can remember I’ve always had this obsession for always making sure that I’m progressing and moving forward in some way. Whether it is by growing my skillset, or improving my mindset, or even by growing my business.
I actually use to write the word MOVE on my wrist during tough times as a reminder to keep pushing forward.
2. Set Small Goals
When all hell has broken lose, and everything seems to be out of your control, the simple act of setting small attainable goals can make all the difference. While goal setting is always a good idea, during a crisis, setting an attainable goal is a good way to take back a bit of control in an otherwise uncontrollable situation.
The goals don’t have to be earth-shattering. Rather they have to be something that you can work towards and accomplish. They could be something along the lines of setting a goal of going to bed by 10pm every night no matter what for the next month. Or maybe you’re going to cook dinner every day this week even if your schedule is crazy. Or it could be that even though money is tight, you will put away $10 from every check that is untouchable.
Just be sure to make the goal specific, and give it a definite deadline. It doesn’t really matter what the goal is, simply set it and accomplish it and reap the reward of having completed it.
3. One problem at a time
Sometimes, when things are falling apart, people may get overwhelmed to the point of inaction. In the heat of the moment, it can feel much safer to try to ignore the problem and hide away. But in reality, this oftentimes makes things way worse. It’s basically procrastination to the 10th power, and we all know that procrastination is something to be avoided.
So when you have a large number of issues to deal with simply take one thing at a time and solve them individually. Once you’ve handled one issue, move on to another until you run out of problems.
Make a list of everything that needs to be accomplished, and then arrange them in order of most important to least important. Take the most pressing issue and tackle that one first. Then as you move down the list, by the time you get to the small ones they won’t even seem like problems anymore.
4. Ask for help
This may have been the hardest lesson for me to learn because I’ve always been the type to want to do everything on my own. This idea of asking for help always made me feel like I had failed in some way. As if I was somehow less than for not being able to handle everything on my own.
But what I’ve come to learn through out the years is that there is no shame in asking for help. We all need a bit of assistance from others now and then, and that’s ok.
Not only does asking for help speed up the process of solving a problem, it also gives the added bonus of making up feel less alone. Sometimes when things are going wrong, we can feel as if we’re floating out here in space all alone. Therefore by asking for help and inviting others in, we realize we’re not as alone as we thought and that there are people out there willing to help if only we’d let them.
So seek help when you need it. It doesn’t make you weak. It means you’re strong enough to know where your weakness lie.
I hope these few tips can help you on your journey. We all experience difficulties, but with a few extra tools in our toolbox we can learn to use those difficulties as lessons for the future and keep pressing forward.
From my heart to yours,
Angel
