Be grateful life is hard.
You are probably thinking–”wait…what??”
No, I want you to really take the time and appreciate that life is hard.
Before you start throwing your arms in the air and giving me some dirty looks, give me a second to explain myself.
Life Being Hard is A Gift
First off, let me ask you, what if everything in life were to be easy? Ever thought about that?
For example, instead of training hard relentlessly for many months for a marathon or 5k… you just ran it effortlessly. Or instead of spending all those years attempting to be certified for something or attaining your college degree, you were just handed it. No late nights studying for exams. No staying up late doing homework or preparing for the next lecture. You were just handed it.
Maybe you are starting to catch my drift. Life being hard is a part of well…life. Imagine if everything was all rainbow and sunshine all the time, would we even be able to appreciate the good times? If there were no bad times, would you be able to appreciate the good times?
Again, my point is, we need to appreciate the lows because they give the highs meaning.
Don’t believe me?
Alan Watts, a British-American philosopher, has this talk called: what if you were God?
In this hypothetical scenario, he asks his audience, what if they were God? He asks the audience what would they do? After being able to do anything and everything, he asks the audience… what would they do then? If they could achieve anything they ever wanted with ease, what will they spend their life doing?
I would suggest you really listen to the lecture. It is a powerful concept that if you wrapped your head around, you would have some appreciation for your struggles.
Take a moment to appreciate that life has “struggle”. If everything was handed to you on a silver platter, you would just take it all for granted and be bored.
So I hope I have brought to your attention, that you need to appreciate the downs because they make appreciate the ups. There are no ups if there are no downs.
Go train for a Spartan Race. The hard work and time you dedicate into completing this obstacle will give you a sense of accomplishment.
Go work alongside a bricklaying company and build walls all day. You might appreciate how much less labor intensive your job is.
Appreciate the struggles of overcoming a heartbreak from a broken relationship. They make you appreciate the good times and the happy moments when you are in one.
I suggest you take the time right now to think about something you are struggling with in life right now. Go on. List 5 things in your life that you are going through right now that you are struggling with. After you have your 5 things listed, take a moment to appreciate the struggle. Appreciate that the struggle or journey, with the ups and the downs, gives life meaning.
One last time, just appreciate how hard life can be sometimes.