Embracing Hardships
Embracing Hardships - Episode 87
We all go through hardships and tough times, it’s part of life. But they don’t have to be the only thing you experience. Life isn’t against you. Actually it’s working for you. To help you push through the tough times, I have five ways that you can embrace these hardships and overcome them.
Hardships are things that we struggle with, we can get frustrated and angry over them. We may not know what to do to get over these hardships. You deserve to go forward and push past these hardships so that you can keep on living your best life.
The first thing you need to do is accept the situation. Often times we want to ignore the hardships that we go through and pretend they aren’t happening, because it can be difficult to deal with them. That isn’t going to help you overcome it though! All you are doing is pushing it off to a later date. You will need to deal with it eventually. Acknowledge that the situation is here, accept it whether or not it came about from your actions or someone else’s actions. The situation is here, so you need to deal with it.
Once you’ve accepted the situation you can move on to the next step which is identify what you can and cannot change. In every situation there is something you can change, you can’t change another person’s opinions or thoughts, but at the very least you can change your own mindset and attitude. Many times, you can change other things in the situation to make it better. Maybe you made a mistake, while you can’t go back in the past and take it back, you can change what you are going to do in the future. The next time a similar situations shows up you can use what you learned and address it and work through the situation in a different way.
Step three is to make a plan. How are you going to overcome the challenge? Come up with a plan on how you are going to get through it. Sometimes you may need to change the plan, but once you have one you are setting yourself up for success. Having a plan gives you a route you can use to get yourself back on track. Sometimes the plan may be really long, and other times it may be shorter. It’s ok! Take the time that you need to overcome the hardship. Don’t keep pushing it away and putting it off, because that will make it take even longer. When you have a plan, it can help calm you down and remove some of the anxiety because you know what you need to do. It’s a place to start from and will allow you to move forward.
The fourth thing to do is look for gratitudes and give thanks for them. In every difficult time there is a positive. As much as the situation may suck, there is a positive. The positive may not be huge, but it’s still there. Maybe you’ve learned something that you can teach somebody else, maybe your mindset has grown. Embrace the positives and give thanks for them. Be thankful that they are in your life.
Last but not least, carry out the plan that you created. Follow the steps that you cameup with. Again, you may need to change it or go back on occasion, but you need to carry it out! A plan is useless if you never actually follow through with it. Take the steps that you need in order to get through your hardships. You can learn and grow from your hardships. They can make you grow stronger if you push through them. You can let them push and hold you down, or you can rise up from them and you can share your strength with other people. If you are struggling, get help if you need it. Find a therapist, talk to a family member, find someone to help you get through your difficult times.
.png)
One personal story I have is from my second year directing a choir at a small school. They had never taken a choir trip, and I wanted to give them that experience. Some of them had never even really been out of the county before. Our original plan was to drive, we had a bus lined up and we had a bunch of different experiences lined up for this weeklong trip. Everything was good until the bus company called saying that they could no longer bus the choir. I started digging to try to find other bus companies, but they were all much more expensive than we had originally planned. There were insurance issues with taking vans, and we couldn’t drive for so long. I finally looked into flying, and it turned out that we were able to get a flight! We were able to go on our trip after all! In the end I persevered, and we made it through. I was able to experience so many incredible moments with my students and it was all so worth it.
I would love to hear what you think about Embracing Hardships! Send me a message on social media @Jonesinfor or email me at spencer@spencermjones.com.
.png)