The Irony of Struggle

How do you sell struggle?

In my younger years, I could not grasp this concept.  I couldn't understand how anyone could promote “struggle” as a “good” thing.

The truth is, I did struggle when I was younger, like many of us, with confidence, with parenting, with finances… in a lot of things.  And it was not fun, pleasant or comfortable.

It wasn’t until I got a little older that I realized the benefits of how my struggles served me.  I realized that life and it’s lessons can be extremely difficult, and if we don’t build up our resilience, we can end up overwhelmed and trampled on.

Our struggles make us strong- they give us insight, experience and are some of our greatest teachers.  In this world that promotes pleasure, comfort and luxury as the end goal, it is no surprise that many of us don’t see how struggle fits in.

One of my greatest insights has been the reframing of struggle.

From something that is terrible and awful and should be avoided at all costs to something that is new, insightful, will help me grow stronger and is often worth the fight.

Honestly, I still struggle, in many areas of life.  I do not necessarily have the same struggles I did 10 or 20 years ago, there are many that I have overcome, and I view it now as moving from strength to strength.  It’s kind of like a game.  Imagine a video game where you start at Level one, journey through the level, gain some awesome skills so you can defeat the bad guy (the struggle) in the end.  What happens?  Yup!  You guessed it… you level up!  You move to Level 2 to see what waits in store for you there. A harder journey, a bigger bad guy and a greater victory.  But at the end of the day, despite the struggle, you keep playing this game because it is enjoyable, it’s challenging and worth the effort.

As an entrepreneur, a coach and a working mother, I’ve needed to reframe this concept of struggle.  For many of you out there, you understand this.  There is always some problem to solve, some skill to learn, and usually some fire to put out.  Instead of seeing these struggles as things that weigh you down, practice seeing them as challenges that help you grow.

This is the real benefit of struggle- it helps us grow and makes us stronger.

For those of us that have gotten very comfortable, and don’t really see the opportunity for struggle in our lives, did you know that (as absurd as it may sound :) you can also add a dash of “struggle” into your life to help with your mental strength and resilience?  

Things like taking daily cold showers, or sleeping on the floor every once in a while.  These are a few small things we can do to make ourselves “uncomfortable”, because our comfort zone can be a very dangerous place to live.

The reason for this is, when the hard lessons of life come, and they will, it’s far better for us to have a solid, strong foundation to stand on.

I hope this post will help you to view struggle in a different, more positive light!

Wishing you love and success on your journey :)

Your coach,