Happiness in life is born out of struggle. If kids have the right parenting, most will embrace any challenge put before them, such as learning to read, write, draw or create crafts. Learning difficult new games and sports are the highlight of even the most awkward children.
Somewhere along the line, and it’s different for everyone, we start running away from the struggle rather than toward it. Maybe because of parenting, bullying — or seeing someone get hurt or embarrassed because they tried for something, but didn’t make it.
I believe it’s possible to find our way back into the fray when long-standing or even recent circumstances have made our own brains get between us and that which we want in life.
It’s really not all that hard either. “Change your mind, change your life,” as a whole lot of successful people who came before us have said through the years.
Become a regressionist — embrace who you were when you came into the world.
It’s easy to become stilted when you’re suddenly forced (by others, yourself, or your circumstances) to learn new skills and embrace new ideologies. Hey, learning is tough!
We start to die soon after we stop growing physically. But the great thing about all living creatures is that our knowledge-base can continue growing up until the day we die. It’s life that gets in the way and halts our desire to keep learning.
When you were a kid, you likely asked your parents and other adults questions to infinity. Kids simply need to know everything, and will bug and bug and bug until they get the information they’re looking for.
They’ll spend hours pouring over a book, game, puzzle, or interactive television program and can easily recite everything they learned after they’re done. It’s passion and relentless desire that drives them.
Regress backward and embrace your former self in order to work as hard as you can at whatever skill, activity, or career you want to add to your life.
Become the kid who could never take no for an answer!
Don’t let the words of others consume your thoughts.
Sure, this is easier said than done. What in this world worth achieving isn’t? We’re all crammed into this tiny space competing for the same things in life — wealth, love, happiness and a never ending search for the meaning of life.
Would you listen to the person running beside you in a race if they told you that you have literally no chance to beat them?
Same holds true for keying into the positivism offered by others too much. Until you’ve overcome and achieved, too much of a good thing really isn’t good at all.
Listen to your inner thoughts and desires. Embrace the challenges as they come. Pat yourself on the back as needed.
Take a break when (if) you need to.
Some of you, and YOU know who you are, need to take less breaks and make more moves.
For the rest, if you’re pushing and grinding 24/7 and feeling like you’re worn out, it’s likely high-time you took a day off and did something that maybe doesn’t apply to your future goals.
For many, now (winter) is a great time of year to go skiing, tobogganing, or to hop on a snowmobile and let the wind freeze your face a bit. Snowshoeing is an awesome way to burn off stress, burning up to 800 calories an hour in deep snow.
If exercise isn’t your kind of fun, tend the garden tomorrow for the day (or plant one), head out to an amusement park or museum. Go out drinking with your friends if you need to get your party game on.
De-stress. Your hopes and dreams can wait one more day to be realized — stop getting in your own way!
“So, my happiness doesn’t come from my money or fame. My happiness comes from seeing life without struggle .” Nicki Minaj
The older I get, the more I realize that there are no lucky breaks for people who don’t ever try anything.
Lottery winnings, inheritances, happenstance — none of it will make you sated in the end. You have to face the dark to appreciate the light – blah, blah, blah.
You ready?
Main Image Credit: Ewan Cross/Flickr