12 Tough Truths That Help You Grow
YOU CAN‟T CONTROL everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and let life happen. Because sometimes the truths you can‟t change end up changing you and helping you grow. Here are twelve such truths:
1. Everything is as it should be.
It's crazy how you always end up where you‟re meant to be—how even the most tragic and stressful situations eventually teach you important lessons that you never dreamed you were going to learn. Remember, often when things are falling apart, they are actually falling into place.
2. Often it's not until you are lost that you can begin to find your true self.
Making a big life change is pretty scary. But you know what's even scarier? Regret. Vision without action is a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare. Your heart is free; have the courage to follow it.
3. It's usually the deepest pain that empowers you to grow to your full potential.
It's often the scary, stressful choices that end up being the most worthwhile. Without pain, there would be no change. But remember that pain, just like everything in life, is meant to be learned from and then released.
4. One of the hardest decisions you will ever face in life is choosing to walk away.
If you catch yourself in a cycle of trying to change someone, or defending yourself against someone who is trying to change you, walk away. But if you are pursuing a dream, take another step. And don't forget that sometimes this step will involve modifying your dream or planning a new one—it‟s OK to change your mind or have more than one dream.
5. You have to take care of yourself first.
Before supporting others, you have to support yourself. Before correcting others, you have to correct yourself. Before making others happy, you have to make yourself happy. It‟s not selfishness, it's personal development. Once you balance yourself, you can begin to balance the world around you.
6. One of the greatest freedoms is truly not caring what everyone else thinks of you.
As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them. Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself.
7. You may need to be single for a while.
Owning your issues—and facing them—will make you far happier, in the long run, than repeating them again and again and expecting a different result.
8. The only thing you can absolutely control is how you react to things out of your control.
The more you can adapt to the situations in life, the more powerful your highs will be, and the more quickly you‟ll be able to bounce back from the lows. Put most simply: Being at peace means being in a state of complete acceptance of all that is, right here, right now.
9. Some people will lie to you.
Pay less attention to what people say, and more attention to what they do. Their actions will show you the truth, which will help you measure the true quality of your relationship in the long term.
10. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never have enough.
Abundance is not about how much you have, it‟s how you feel about what you have. When you take things for granted, your happiness fades away.
11. Yes, you have failed in the past.
Just because you‟re not where you want to be today doesn't mean you won‟t be there someday. You can turn it all around by making a simple choice to stand back up—to try again, to love again, to live again, and to dream again.
12. Everything is going to be all right—maybe not today, but eventually.
There will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong does. And you might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won‟t. Sometimes it‟s just a matter of us staying as positive as possible until the sunshine breaks through the clouds again.