Struggle
Notes
In life we often face many challenges, and the question is how can we deal with them. More often than not, it depends on how we perceive them, as an opportunity for growth Growth Mindset, or something we Fear, so much that we are paralyzed by it and prefer to avoid it if possible.
Not only that every struggle/pain is an opportunity, there are hardly any opportunities that don't involve hardship. Being raised with a silver spoon, even if it includes "the best education" is worthless without struggle. Through challenges we gain Emotional Resilience and Grit. Creative Destruction is proof that not only pain/struggle is helpful for growth, it is even vital. Something has to end, in order for the good to sink in.
However, this doesn't mean that facing (let alone overcoming) challenges is easy. For better or worse, facing challenges creates moments of Identity Discovery, where we see who we are. Challenges by their very nature are something that hits us so hard that we are forced to change. The only question is whether we would be broken beyond repair, a shadow of our previous self, or will we be able to rise above it. Some, if not all hardships can break us, and we will feel terrible while facing them, but this doesn't dictate our destiny. Our worst moments can turn us into our best selves, there is no contradiction between how awful the hardship is, and the insights we can extract from it.
The way to convert trauma into growth is:
- Agency - Have a clear understanding of what you had and didn't have control over Agency. You don't control the world, and only little of your circumstances, some things are unavoidable, but you can always choose how to response introspection.
- Narrative - How we perceive the world and ourselves is the result of the stories we tell ourselves. Try to create one that is imbued with Self-compassion, and avoids self blame. Focus on growth, on what can we learn from it, how it improves us.
- Defining - Understand that trauma reveals your character, so it could also be a chance to become someone better, understand what matters to you in the moments that matters most, and even more than that, it is within this moments that who you are is manifested. What we do is not who we are
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🔼Topic:: Change (MOC) ◀Origin:: 🔗Link::