APPRECIATING OUR STRUGGLES

Most of my days and weeks move along in a pleasant, routine manner so when I encounter a week where each day holds many challenging moments, it is very noticeable.  I shouldn’t be surprised because in our life journey, we will all face challenges at some point along the way.  These challenges may come in the form of problems, difficulties, issues, obstacles, barriers, or hardships.  Some of us will work through each of these without a second thought.  Some of us, upon encountering the challenge, will turn to someone else to try and deal with it.  Some of us will view these challenges as negative events in our lives and let them overwhelm us.   However, if we take a breath, step back, move beyond any emotional reaction, and approach any challenges one at time, with some thought and creativity, we will be move beyond each and every challenge.

 Dealing with challenges reminds me of the following story:

 

One day, a girl came upon a cocoon, and she could tell that a butterfly was trying to hatch. She waited and watched the butterfly struggle for hours to release itself from the tiny hole. All of a sudden, the butterfly stopped moving–it seemed to be stuck.

The girl then decided to help get the butterfly out. She went home to get a pair of scissors to cut open the cocoon. The butterfly was then easily able to escape, however, its body was swollen and its wings were underdeveloped. 

The girl still thought she had done the butterfly a favor as she sat there waiting for its wings to grow in order to support its body. However, that wasn’t happening. The butterfly was unable to fly, and for the rest of its life, it could only move by crawling around with little wings and a large body.

Despite the girl’s good intentions, she didn’t understand that the restriction of the butterfly’s cocoon and the struggle the butterfly had to go through in order to escape served an important purpose. As butterflies emerge from tight cocoons, it forces fluid from their body into their wings to prepare them to be able to fly.

Just as the challenges the butterfly faced before hatching helped it prepare to have strong wings, so it is with us.  The challenges we face along our life journey help us grow and become stronger.  There is often a reason behind our challenges, one we may not understand at the time of dealing with the challenge.  But, if we are patient with ourselves and are persistent, we will find the strength that we need to deal with the current challenge as well as future ones.

We should appreciate any challenge, any struggle, along our life’s path because these challenges, these struggles offer us opportunities to:

Determine what is important and what direction we really want to take. The challenge really offers us an opportunity to make changes or improve on something.

Re-evaluate ourselves, especially our goals, attitude, behavior, and priorities.  The challenge gives us an opportunity to ‘reset’ things in our life.

Develop new skills, experiences, and knowledge.  Challenges often force us to grow in ways we never thought possible.

Take control and focus on solutions (rather than the situation/the challenge).  By doing this we do not give any power to the situation/the problem, but rather, give the power to working on solving and moving beyond the situation.

Learn how to enjoy the moment. Life is a series of highs and lows, but we can’t allow our lows to snatch our joy and dictate our feelings. Learn to enjoy every moment of every day despite what life presents. The more we practice, the better we will be at enjoying the moment. Focusing on solutions keeps our thoughts in the moment, and what we can accomplish in the now.

Trust ourselves to overcome future challenges.  If we can successfully get through whatever we are facing now, we can do it again with the next challenge.

Show ourselves that we can cope even when things are tough.  While the challenge may be tough emotionally and/or physically, our ability to get through it shows us that we do have the capability to persevere and cope.

Discover our inner strength and resilience.  We are stronger than we give ourselves credit and challenges show us just how much we can endure.

Relish in a sense of accomplishment when we overcome the challenge.  No matter how big or small the challenge is, getting beyond it brings not only a sense of relief but also a sense of accomplishing something.  Overcoming challenges makes us feel good and brings us joy.

Boost our confidence level.  Overcoming challenges increases the faith and belief we have in ourselves and our ability to handle whatever may come our way.

Feel empowered, motivated, and inspired.  The confidence we gain from overcoming challenges makes us feel more empowered and in control of our life.  The sense of control motivates us and inspires us to continue dealing with future challenges.

Be a role model for someone who may experience a similar challenge. Our actions and our growth may provide the inspiration for someone to tackle their challenge instead of falling victim to it.

Kemi Sogunle (author and certified life coach) said, “The tests we face in life’s journey are not to reveal our weaknesses but to help us discover our inner strengths. We can only know how strong we are when we strive and thrive beyond the challenges we face.”  How true is that?  If we can remember to appreciate our struggles, our challenges, we will truly discover what we’re made of. We all have something inside of us that is greater than any challenge that we may encounter on our life journey.  We do grow in some way from all of life’s experiences we face and challenges we overcome.  That growth in itself is a good thing!!