Today's Struggle is Tomorrow's Strength
Success is a process. You have ups and downs. Highs and lows. These are the building blocks that make you who you are today.
Think about a time in your life that was hard. You might be experiencing such a time right now. It might be a very serious circumstance you are going through - an illness, a redundancy, a relationship breakdown. Or it can even be something simple - you are stuck in traffic, you are training for a marathon, you are stuck at home because of the pandemic.
Whatever the struggle is, we have a choice about how we approach it. We can choose to be victims - blaming others and succumbing to self-pity. Or we can take responsibility over our own lives. And feel gratitude that the situation is not worse. There are always people who have it worse than what we do. And we can use our struggle to inspire others. By showing strength, can help other people realise a strength within themselves.
You can make a decision today that will help you tomorrow. It is all about your mindset and the attitude you have towards struggle.
Getting that mindset is similar to training our muscles. At some point in a weight training session we may feel we have had enough. But that slightly heavier weight, or that one extra rep helps us to get stronger bodies. And also a stronger mind because we needed some willpower to convince ourselves to go that tiny bit farther.
It might be difficult, but next time you feel that you are struggling try to think of these three things:
- I am embracing my struggle. I am not blaming other people or circumstances. I am taking responsibility.
- My struggle is not holding me back, it is giving me the tools to become greater than I ever thought possible.
- I have struggled before and have got through it. I can do it again.
I have found inspiration from so many people - ones I know and ones who have more public profiles. Here are some:
Who has inspired you?
How can you inspire yourself?
Getting Marketing Sh*t Done | Growth Marketing Strategy for Consultancies and Tech | Creating Content That Makes You Irresistible To Your Ideal Clients ? | Founder & CEO at Freshbat
3 年Diane this is great. My most recent struggle was when I burnt out in Autumn and then finally snapped at the start of the New Year. I think the things that helped me get through it were: talking openly to my friends and family and being honest that I wasn’t coping; scenario planning to look at all the different options available to me (often the worst case scenario isn’t actually that bad!); and finally being decisive and committing to that decision wholeheartedly with no regrets. Mindset is definitely a huge part of overcoming struggles for me and I always try to frame them as a positive rather than a negative - like an opportunity rather than a failure.
Creativity Is Your Superpower | AI Literacy | Strategic Thinking | Storytelling & Leadership | Helping Professionals Future-Proof Their Work
3 年How spot on you are Diane. There is no triumph without struggle. You can’t know hot without cold; front without back; etc. Rather than avoid the struggle or struggle with the struggle ?? practice gratitude for the challenges you face. I like your simple mantras because they work!
Award winning people development specialist and learning journey cartographer
3 年I would love to hear your views Cécile Jenkins, Mary Lou Kayser, MAT Mandy Avis MCIPD, Dan Cable Catherine Storey Jay Olenicz Katherine Suddaby Dawn O'Keefe Ros King Yolanda Fraction, M.Ed. And from everyone else.