23 Jul When Life Hits You Like A Train

Everyone has bad days, but sometimes it feels like life has you in a choke hold, while giving you a wet Willy, and beating you with the pimp hand of reality. Thats life. Some times are good and some times are liken to explosive diarrhea. It’s how the cookie crumbles. Life is not about how bad you have it, but how quickly you dust yourself off and get back up to face it another day. It’s not what happens that matters, but how you react to it.

You Are Not Special

There’s not a single person on this planet who doesn’t experience bad times. It’s a badge of honor for this struggle called adulting. Some struggles are financial, some physical, others social. Some are just in your head, but torture you none the less. (Btw, these are some of worst kind.) No matter how unique you feel your pain is, I guarantee you many others have gone through the same throughout history, and many of them figured a way to overcome.

The same happens in nature. Do you think that deer just stroll endlessly through their lives with no horrific life terrors? Little David the deer was chased by a bear on Sunday, almost fell off the side of a cliff on Tuesday, couldn’t find anything to eat Wednesday-Friday, and most likely caught Chronic Wasting Disease on Saturday. Little David the deer is now F’d; he had a good run though. All living things in this planet experience pain and struggle because that is a requirement of this world. Pain and struggle IS this world. Thinking anything otherwise is participation trophy wishful thinking.

Pain Has A Purpose

It’s a standard that every person go through struggles and pain as they allow you to grow and develop fortitude. Never having to go through some sh-t would leave you quite weak in spirit. It also would diminish your ability to relate to other’s struggles and possibly provide beneficial support or advice that would actually help. In a way, pain is what connects us to our fellow humans.

Pain also provides the contrast for the good times to have meaning. When you feel sadness and then suddenly experience happiness, the happiness feels so much more intense as you had the contrast of a negative feeling and then a positive one. I know this phenomenon all too well as I used it daily in my DJ days when choosing what songs to play. I would move the crowd by contrasting the emotions felt from each song to manipulate the crowd into feeling them more strongly. The same works in relationships where your bond grows stronger and you become closer as you go through your ups and downs together.

How To Overcome

To overcome some of the sh-t sandwiches that life hands you, it’s all about perspective. An understanding that this is simply a part of life and that struggle is temporary. While things may be bad at the moment, soon the happy go lucky sun will peek its head over the horizon to bring you warmth and happiness. It starts with perspective and finishes with action, and the best action for dealing with tough times is to take them head on. Running from them will not help and only reinforces weak character. You must take the bucking bull by the horns and ride it out till the end. Remember, only the strong survive.

There is another approach to dealing with adversity that is equally wise as taking decisive action; wait. Sometimes instead of taking action, especially when it’s a situation that you have little to no control over, it’s best to just sit and wait. It’s not necessarily about waiting until is over, but rather waiting until conditions change to when you CAN do something about it. It takes maturity to sit still and wait while everything is burning around you, and wisdom to know when it’s time to make your move. Both only come with experience with such struggles.

Pain Is Your Friend

Avoiding all struggles is a foolish move and useless endeavor. Life will meet you with that raging train at some point, but it’s all about how you react and handle it. Do you meet it with courage to take it on, wisdom to know when to wait for the right moment to act, or cowardice to try to outrun the inevitable? Your reaction is a reflection of your character and inner strength and shows you how you will handle most situations in your life. Only you are responsible for you. So do yourself a favor; take the pain, wait out the storm, and accept the growth that will come from the situation you’ve been presented with. It’s your daily rite of passage hit to the tattered life addicts group of adults anonymous.

The purpose of this GI SAID IT blog is simple, to provide perspective. GI delivers this unique perspective in a style that is unapologetically honest, straight to the point, and at times a bit brutal. GI SAID IT: Brutally honest, no BS. Click for more GI SAID IT shows and articles.