Life is hard sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. More importantly, we all have to accept this as a fact because once we do so, it’ll be easier for us to overcome all difficulties and hardship life throws our way.
Strong, powerful, and wise people know this. They know that life will not always go the way we want. We have already been through heartbreaks, failures, or the loss of someone close to us. And the truth is, we’re going to experience these things in the future too.
I know this sounds harsh, maybe even pessimistic, but my intention is not to make you sad. Instead, I want to encourage you to accept reality because only in this way, you’ll be able to live through difficult times and live a peaceful life.
In what follows, there’s a list of 8 harsh truths you need to accept so as to be stronger and wiser:
1. Nothing is perfect.
Find the perfect guy/woman; make your relationship perfect; find a perfect job; always look perfect, and the list goes on. I’m sure you’ve heard these many times. But, how come we rarely hear: “Perfection does not exist?” Because that’s the truth.
There’s no perfect time to enter a relationship, get a job, change a career, or visit the country you’ve been planning to go to for so long. If you continue waiting for the right time, right place, or right people, you’ll end up with a long list of regrets about the things you didn’t do although you had many chances.
2. You’re the only person you can have an absolute trust in.
Okay, I know. You tell your parents, your friends, and your partner all your secrets and every detail about your personal life because you trust them completely. But, the truth is, no one can be 100 percent sure that they can fully trust someone. Because if we could, there wouldn’t be so many people who feel disappointed and betrayed by their loved ones.
However, there’s one person you can have a full confidence in – yourself. Moreover, you owe it to yourself to always be true to yourself and never pretend to be someone you’re not. It feels amazing and fulfilling when you look at the mirror and the reflection you see is the real you.
3. If you don’t fix yourself, no one else will.
Do you feel sad, lonely, unfulfilled, or miserable maybe? Well, if you do, why don’t you do something about it? Stop waiting and hoping that a miracle will happen and that someone will come and make your problems disappear. Stop thinking that the love of your life will be magically dropped aside your door.
Stop waiting for someone else to do all those difficult things you’ve been putting off until later. You may be afraid and feel lost, but there’s always a way to solve your problems on your own. You are not in a helpless position. Figure out what’s missing in your life and then get out in the world and find it.
4. No one is too busy to respond.
That friend of yours you called yesterday, but didn’t reach was not too busy to answer your call. That colleague you texted two days ago was not too busy to text you back. The truth is, if someone doesn’t respond to your calls and messages, that’s because they’ve deliberately chosen not to do so.
So, stop making excuses for all those who say: “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call. I was too busy,” because they weren’t. No matter how much work you have to do and how many responsibilities you need to take care of, you’ll always manage to spend a minute or two of your time so as to answer the calls of the people you love and hold dear.
5. Failure is okay.
We all make mistakes, say things we don’t mean, make bad choices and wrong decisions. We all fail. But, failure is a completely normal thing. It’s a part of life.
In fact, failure is good as it’s something which is not supposed to prevent you from fulfilling your goals and dreams and make you feel bad about yourself.
Instead, failure helps you become aware of your mistakes and avoid making them again. It helps you become tougher, more resilient and determined. It teaches you that sometimes you have to fall low so as to rise up and be stronger.
6. You can’t change the past.
No matter how bad you want to change your past, you never will. You can’t just magically delete sad, painful things that happened to you. Because what’s done it’s done. There’s no turning back. After all, what’s the use of wasting your time and energy thinking about things that already happened and you can’t change?
Don’t waste your life thinking about your past mistakes, sorrows, and heartbreaks. Because if you continue to think about them, you’re going to miss a lot of precious present moments. What you should do is focus on the present and embrace the future.
7. Ugh, this one is brutal, but there may not be tomorrow.
Steve Jobs explained this the best: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
No one knows how long they’ll live. People have accidents, get sick, have strokes and heart attacks – we face things which are beyond our control. So, don’t wait for tomorrow to come so as to do something that you can do today because you never know if tomorrow will come.
8. Being busy is not as the same as being productive.
It’s funny how some people like to brag about their tight schedules and how busy they are, when in fact, if they stop stressing about how much work they have to do, they’ll finish their tasks faster.
If you want to be productive, you should make a list of all the things you have to do, then decide which of them are the most important and do those first. You also need to make sure you manage your time wisely and get rid of all the things that might distract you, such as your phone, the social networks, or the TV.
