You are emotionally shattered by the hardships in life, aren’t you?

When problems after problems creep into your life, you wallow in self pity thinking that you are the only one to suffer in the whole world.

You feel miserable that others are enjoying their life while you are struggling and suffering in abject wretchedness. You think that you have been singled out by God to show all his anger.

Are you really an unlucky person to suffer many hardships in life?

What are the qualities in your life you would call as hardships?

• Your persistent failures.
• The insults inflicted on you.
• Your financial debacle.
• Your relationship problems with your spouse.
• Your inability to attain success.
• Your poor standard of living.

Most of you point out these aspects as hardships in life.

How wrong can you be?

I watched with terror as the news channel flashed videos of houses being  swallowed by the raging floods in Uttarakand, in North India. It happened many years ago. My heart felt heavy with sorrow when I saw hundreds of innocent people losing their precious life to Nature’s unrelenting fury.

Why is God so cruel?

Why is Nature so heartless?

I asked myself these questions an umpteenth time. I was even more depressed when I heard the heart rending stories of the survivors.

“We had to walk over buried bodies.”

“I lost my husband\wife\sister.”

“I saw my son disappear into the muddy slush right before my eyes.”

Such pathetic experiences of the affected people made me want to cry.

Can these survivors ever recover from the turmoil of seeing their dear ones being buried under the muddy slush?

Can the people of Syria and other war stricken countries ever be able to lead a normal life after losing their precious ones to the senseless wars some religious fanatics indulge in?

I am sure they can never be the same again. They will take their emotional loss to their grave.

Such heart- rending trauma is the real hardships in life.

When you lose your precious ones, a deep scar of sorrow is engraved in your mind.

When you face sudden natural disasters, your life turns upside down.

Many precious lives are lost when devastating natural calamities strike you without a warning.  The Japan tsunami, the Allahabad earthquake, the terrible tsunami that struck the Sumatra islands are real hardships people experienced.

These sort of hardships leave a permanent scar in your life. When you are unlucky to be right in the midst of such calamities, the havoc it plays in your life makes you an emotional wreck.

Your family is lost. You lose your parents\spouse\children. And your loss is somewhat like an amputation. Your life will never be the same, ever again.

These are the true hardships in life.

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

But most often, you complain that you are experiencing terrible hardships in life for almost all the problems you face.

You make your work related problems, relationship problems and money problems seem as monumental ones, out to destroy your life.

If you feel so, you have not understood life in its proper perspective. You cannot live your life without these problems.

It is part and parcel of your life.

Relationship problems, work related problems, money related problems are transitory and temporary. When you fight against these problems, one day you will overcome them.

And you can easily come out of such problems without emotionally hurting yourself.

Hardships war stricken people face are real problems.

The trauma experienced during nature’s devastation is real hardship.

The loss of your precious one is a real hardship.

It is because your loss is irreplacable and permanent.

The problems you face in your day-to-day life are not hardships. It is a normal happening in your life. The problems you complain about exists in everyone’s life.

No one can do away with problems. Such problems you face in your life never leave a scar of loss in your mind. Instead, it makes you stronger.

Yes!

When overcome your problems by dealing with it firmly, it makes you a very confident person. So, your day to day problems are not hardships in life.

They are the normal challenges life throws at you to chisel and mold you.

But, if you hang your head in dejection and feel that you were born to suffer, you are not going to come out of it.

Work related problems make you feel stressed as you spend most of your day in your work place.

What are the common problems you face in work?

• A nasty boss who always targets you.
• A bully who makes your time in your workplace a terror.
• Your long awaited promotion which goes to your junior.
• Your heavy work load.
• Long commuting hours to your workplace.

These are your work related problems. You cannot call them as hardships in life.

You cannot expect your success to be handed over to you in a platter. You can attain success in your profession only through such problems. So, never feel your work related problems as hardships.

Take a paper and list out the problems you face in your work place and keenly observe it.

Every problem has a culprit behind it.

Who is the culprit?

It is your inability to cope up with these common work related problems.

If you are assertive, a bully cannot torture you. A rejected promotion does not mean no promotion. It is your golden opportunity to work even harder and move even higher up in your profession. Your heavy work load is the result of your lack of proficiency.

If you sit back in despair, you will be immersed in your work related problems. You must wriggle out of it.

Improvisation, hard work, sincerity, dedication, loyalty, and self-assertiveness can easily make you successful.

Your financial problems teach you the value of money.

Your money related problems make you feel you are facing tremendous hardships in life.

It is true you cannot survive in this mercenary world without money. You lose your friends\relatives when you have no money, as they fear you will extend a begging bowl to them.

Handling your hard-earned money with intelligence will make you swim out of this problem very easily. You know the trick to earn, but you never know the trick to save. When you earn and not save, it is as good as not earning at all.

Cut down all wasteful expenses and concentrate on living within your means. This way you will never slip into debt.

Never crib about the money others have. It is not your business. Concentrate on the money you earn.

Save and spend, and not spend and save.

Handle your relationship problems with understanding.

Your relationship problems are the most silliest of all. The fault actually lies with both.

You do not make effort to smoothen out your differences. Instead, you allow your relationship problems to aggravate by not nurturing your relationship with your spouse.

Your unrealistic expectations about your spouse makes you paint a picture of a rosy married life. You fail to understand that marriage is not a bed of roses, but a thorny pathway. You have to wend your way through the thorns to find the roses.

RIGHTFUL CONCLUSION

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S.Lewis

You live your life only once. Don’t waste it by cribbing that you are facing hardships in life.

Instead, count your blessings.

If you want to climb the mountain, you must be prepared for a steep climb. Mountain without a rough terrain does not exist.

Life without hardships also does not exist.