When Life Gets Hard - Embrace the Difficulties

4 Strategies for Embracing the Difficulties & Growing

When life gets hard, as it does, for all of us, embrace the difficulties!

If you’re facing some life challenges, it can be hard to remember that it’s normal to have obstacles crop up from time to time. Everyone has setbacks, disappointments, and tough times. But going through a rough patch doesn’t have to spoil your life. The key to thriving in the face of adversity is how you respond to the obstacles in your path.

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Here are four strategies to help you ride through and come out on top.

When Life Gets Hard, Choose to Embrace the Difficulty

When life gets hard and you’re having a tough time, it can be easy to feel helpless, even believing you’re a victim. But it’s up to you to rise to the challenge and decide that you won’t live overwhelmed. We can’t deny the overwhelm that life’s difficulties bring us – and at times we must allow ourselves to acknowledge and process the situation

However, the real gift comes when we choose to take control and embrace your challenge is the first step in overcoming it. Look your obstacle square in the face and resolve to meet it. I’m not making light of your situation – it probably is terrible. However, there are others that have faced tough situations and come out strong and successful. Let’s choose to join their ranks, by finding the gift and embracing the difficulties.

Be okay with discomfort – don’t run from it…

The proof that you’re embracing your obstacle is acknowledging that it doesn’t feel good. Much like allowing yourself to grieve and process deep losses, we must allow difficulties to grow us.

It can feel uncomfortable, heavy, even painful. There are lots of life experiences that hurt at the time but end up being for your best and highest good. From marathon training to going to the dentist to public speaking, even facing your debtors, you feel so much better once you’ve faced the worst. Remember it won’t last forever. Don’t shrink from the bad feelings. You can ride them out! Process them, even grieve them, but most importantly find the gift in them and grow from them.

Embrace difficulties brain fire and checkmark

Make sure you have a support team – And Keep Going Even Without Support!!

Radical Resilience: When There’s No Going Back to the Way Things Were The Gift of Adversity: The Unexpected Benefits of Life’s Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections by Rosenthal MD, Norman E (2014) Paperback In Defense of Adversity: Turning Your Toughest Challenges into Your Greatest Success There is Always Option B: How to Overcome Life’s obstacles and Be the Best you can be Supernormal: The Untold Story of Adversity and Resilience

I hope you don’t have to face your obstacles alone. It can make all the difference to have people around you who are supportive, who’ll stick by you, and cheer you on when you want to give up. But, you know what, sometimes, during those darkest of times you can feel all alone. And that is where the rubber really meets the road. Even alone, when life gets hard – embrace the difficulties.

If you have support, you may find that extra level of energy to help get you through. And you’ll be there for your friends and colleagues when they’re facing their challenges. Once you’re part of those that have each other’s backs, none of you will have to face life’s ups and downs alone. You’ll fight together and celebrate success together.

Building these sorts of friendships may start with you choosing to be there for others – even during your difficulties. Getting our attention off of our woes can really bring perspective.

Be grateful for your obstacles and Embrace the difficulties…

Feeling gratitude for the challenges in life might sound counter-intuitive. But think about it. Accepting the challenge, resolving to meet it head-on, and overcoming it makes you a better, stronger person. Think of how good it feels to deal with a problem and solve it. To face fear and overcome it.

“Use failures as fuel, and adversities as a guiding force to lead you where you need to be. Take each challenge as a lesson, making you a better Christian, rather than a bitter being.”
Overcoming Adversity with Grace

Without obstacles in your life, you would not grow and learn and become a better person. Obstacles are a natural, normal part of living an authentic life.

It’s not what happens in life that defines you but how you deal with your situations. You have heard by now the phrase when life gives you lemons turn them into lemonade. This is true today as it was whenever the first person coined the phrase.

Life getting hard – tips to help you turn adversity into success.

mugs and kettles for when life gets hard

Believe in what you are doing.
Indeed, we have all heard the classic tale of how Thomas Edison continued 10,000 times before getting the light bulb to the way he wanted it. It’s hard to say if that number became exaggerated over the years, but he likely tried several thousand times at least. The point is, he believed in what he was doing. When you try something that is untested, you need to take a leap of faith. Otherwise, it’s too easy to give up on your venture.
Learn from your hard times, when life gets hard.
If you ask any successful person how they got that way, they will most likely tell you it’s due to overcoming failures. They learned from those failures and tried something different. Each iteration, they learned something new from their difficulties. They continued until there were no failures.
Let others help you as you embrace your difficulties
Sometimes, when you face adverse situations, others can help you to turn your situation around. It’s rare that anyone faces something entirely unique. Someone has gone through something similar to what you are going through. Reach out to them. It’s better to get the help you need than to needlessly struggle with your situation. Some people avoid reaching out because they are embarrassed. Just remember, those people once went through it, too. They know what you are dealing with.
If you are facing some adverse situation, it may be due to setting too high of expectations on yourself or others.
By adjusting your expectations, you may be able to succeed in your situation.
Don’t wait to try again after life gets hard.
If your difficulties are due to procrastinating, you can probably figure out you need to stop that behavior. If you let something build because it’s uncomfortable to deal with, in most cases, the situation will get worse. Whether relationships, your job, your ministry…do some work on overcoming procrastination.
Learn how to conquer your fears.
Often, adversity and difficulties are due to not taking action because you are fearful. When you face your fears, you can move past the hurtful situation and get on with your life. Consider some daring activities like bungee jumping or skydiving! The point is to create situations that you would not normally find yourself doing. Usually, when you overcome one fear, the process helps you to overcome all of them.
Another aspect of overcoming adversity is not being honest with yourself about the situation.
People tend to hide their true feelings or deny that they are facing severe difficulty. Try some introspection to learn what is truly going on.

ACTIONABLE STEPS for When Life Gets Hard – Embrace the Difficulties

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Create a journal to record when adverse situations occur in your life. Write down what you were feeling at the time, how you believe you got into those situations, and eventually what you did to resolve them. When you keep a journal for this reason, it will serve as a guidebook for future difficult situations.	Take a seminar or course on how to stop procrastinating. You can find courses online or your company may offer them and will cover the cost. Procrastination is a habit that you spent years developing, so don’t expect to overcome it after one course. You may need to take several to reinforce the concepts.	Embrace the difficulty and adverse situation you may be facing. You can find strength and a gift in your life when hard stuff comes.