The Greatest Advice I Was Ever Given
The Greatest Advice I Was Ever Given About Life Being Tough
The greatest advice I was ever given was not a sweet sentence meant to ease life. The greatest advice I was ever given was not soft-spoken words that were easy to digest. The greatest advice I was given — and when I say great, I mean the best advice I was given that would help me cope with life, all of the ups and especially the downs — was this:
“Life is tough. You have to be strong.”
The Hardest Advice Is Often the Most Helpful
When we’re down and out, we usually want to hear an I’m so sorry or I hope it gets better. We want someone to say, That’s awful. I wish I could make it easier. You poor thing. And as much as we want to hear this and stay in some state of victimhood, it’s not what we actually need to hear.
People feeling sorry for me may be what I’ve wanted in the moment and we’ve all wanted that, but it never really makes us feel better. It only perpetuates the pain and keeps us stuck in sorrow and victimhood.
Why Comfort Keeps Us Stuck in Pain
I’m not here to detract from pain or grief, which I believe are very necessary to build true resolve. But at some point, we need someone to say, Well, that sucks, but that’s life — and you have to get through it.
This has been the greatest advice ever because it taught me a hard but essential lesson. Yes, life really is tough. Life can truly suck a lot of the time. But that is life.
Accepting That Life Is Tough
I feel incredibly lucky to have finally understood this in a deep, wholehearted way. I think it’s only when you truly get this that you’re able to find some sense of peace.
Life is not all peachy-keen, happy-go-lucky fluff. It’s the school of hard knocks. We are here to learn and evolve. And while life can be really awesome, while we can experience many highs – life will always have downs, challenges, and struggles.
In my understanding of life and in my belief system, this is our karma. These are our lessons. This is why I don’t believe in just one life and believe in reincarnation. We don’t all have the same experiences or lessons because we are all working out different karma and soul evolutions at different stages.
