Adversity. Most, if not all people look at adversity as a bad thing, but what if I told you that it is the one thing that tells us if we are still engaged with the life we are pursuing in the first place? If there is anything I have learned about adversity, it is that bumps in your journey are there to check and see if you are really committed to what you are doing or not.
Not only does adversity do this, but it also helps you implement these three important things in your life.
1. Learning
The learning process takes you further when you are actually open to learning something from what you do in life. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again that never gets you the good results you desire, you will never learn from the adversity that comes to you in life. If you keep shying away from adversity, you will never learn the lessons that this process has to offer. When bad things come your way, don’t let them scare you off. Let them shape you into a stronger, more determined person. Learn from these moments in life and repeat. Once you learn to learn from adversity, you will be more apt to embrace it.
2. Perseverance
Not only are you to embrace adversity, but you are to keep moving through it. Perseverance is key to accomplishing anything in life. Why? Because bad things will happen. Such is life. But, it’s what you do with it that will ultimately make you or break you. So, how do you learn to look at adversity in this way? Take the time to process possible outcomes. The question that this will answer is, “What is the worst that can actually happen to me?”. When you learn to face the facts and see that the worst that can happen to you in adversity is usually not that bad, you will learn to keep moving against all odds.
3. Growing
If you aren’t continually growing in all circumstances and situations, you won’t end up going very far. You see, growth can be found in every moment, especially when you encounter sour life situations. When you learn how to handle life in the best ways possible, you will take away lessons for the future and growth will occur. When you don’t take the time to learn from life, you won’t end up growing. What you will do is continually make mistakes in the way you handle the same exact situations in the future. Growth comes when you make the choice to. When you decide to grow through the rough spots that do come your way, you will come out better for it on the other side.
The great thing about making this choice, is that more opportunities come your way to show what you have learned. This growth creates momentum and creates movement. You will keep moving forward once you understand the most effective way to deal with life’s adversity. The other thing to note here is that approaching life with this mentality is what will bring positivity as well. When you realize that adversity will come, your mentality towards these situations isn’t filled with negativity. Since you now understand that adversity will come no matter what and once you decide to not shy away from it and instead make the decision to embrace it, you can go ahead and prepare right now for when these times come in tomorrow, next week, or next month. Preparation allows for you to dictate proactively how you will act upon adversity, rather than deciding after the fact how you will react to it in the moment.
I know it can be difficult to finally look adversity in the eye, learn along the way, persevere through the valleys and grow from these less than ideal moments, but it is necessary to live life to the fullest. Maybe you are familiar with shying away from adversity, but when you take the time to actually look and see what it is that you accomplished when you did that, I can guarantee that it wasn’t much.
When you see adversity for the three areas it offers growth in, you will then begin to live life to the fullest starting, today.