We all experience challenges in our lives. Some are big while thankfully others are small. With all things that hit you in life, you have to lift yourself up and believe that you can get through it. There are lessons to be learned from the challenges that you experience. Whether or not you chose them or they were dished out to you, there is a way to go through and learn a valuable lesson.
Most people don’t like to hand over control to others or their environments. However, I have finally come to terms that control is an illusion and that we truly do not control anything outside of ourselves. We can only control what and how we feel. We can choose to be happy or sad and live out whatever emotions that are being experienced in the moment. Yet within an hour or so, you can have a change of feelings and be a little lighter. Once you process what you have experienced, it allows you to move forward. With that momentum, there is a decision to be made. Continue with the status quo or make a change. Only you can decide how that will look like for you. No one else can make you feel better or change your circumstances. You do that by taking action or not taking action. Either way it is a choice and one that only you can make.
If you choose to not take action you risk the possibility of repeating the same cycle over again. This time you will have to experience the same thing however it may be more intense. This is the only way that you can learn that there needs to be a change in order for things to be different for you. You cannot assume the victim mindset and believe that others are to blame for your troubles. No one has that much power over you that you cannot take control of your emotions or actions. If we continuously blame others for where we are in life, then we miss out on the opportunity to change our circumstances. If we own our experiences and how things worked out for us, then we can learn something from it and choose to not repeat the same cycle of events.
I have been beaten and put down and made to feel like my existence didn’t matter. I could have chosen to believe this projection of other’s opinions of me and continue to live life as a victim. Had I chosen this path, my achievements would have been less than the many accomplishments that I have succeeded in. I chose to not pay attention to all the negativity that was projected and believe that I could achieve whatever I set my mind to. Most of the times I succeeded, but in fairness I was not able to achieve all the goals that I had set for myself. Even without those achievements, I still managed to get ahead and become something far beyond than I had ever anticipated when I was a mere child growing up in poverty.
Even when life gets you down, look ahead at the many paths that you can choose from to make something better for yourself. You are never stuck where you are unless you believe it to be true. Change your mind, change your life.
Joanne Robinson
