What To Do When Life Gets Hard

Life can be a difficult journey. The world has a penchant for throwing unexpected curveballs. Things like sudden car trouble, illness in the family, or trouble at work are tough to deal with when you’re already doing well. When you’re struggling already, these surprise difficulties can create situations that seem almost impossible to deal with.

Luckily, you’re not alone. While everyone’s journey through life is different, absolutely every person on the planet will hit a rough patch every once in a while. Here are some of the top tips that successful people give for getting through these tough times without pulling your hair out.

1) Accept The Inevitable. Change the Changeable.

Attitude is important. The way you think and feel about a problem can have a massive impact on how you deal with it. It’s incredibly common for people to get fixated on problems that they simply cannot affect, allowing the issue to cast a massive, negative shadow over their daily life. Don’t do this! Some things are truly unchangeable. Try to think of these things as passive obstacles that you have to overcome. It’s okay to complain about them every once in a while, but make sure your goal is to climb over the mountain, not to whine about it.

One of the best things you can do when faced with an impossible situation is to analyze it and figure out what parts you can change. Life’s challenges tend to be complex and usually have multiple components that you can interact with. Even if you can’t change the core of a problem, you can often take action to make the other parts more manageable. For example, there’s not a lot you can do about a loved one being diagnosed with a terminal illness. You can, however, spend time with them, make sure they’re comfortable, and make sure that appropriate end-of-life arrangements are put into place before it’s too late. The core of the problem is still there. It’s still important to take steps to increase your ability to deal with the situation.

The flip side of this is that many people tend to give up on small and medium issues too quickly. There are a lot of things in life that are very much under your control. Many of these are difficult to change, requiring effort stretched out over months or years. Others just require a few short, difficult interactions. Don’t put these off. If there’s something that’s bothering you, make sure that you’re doing everything you can to fix things. This might mean starting a long journey of self-improvement, finally making a tough phone call that you’ve been putting off, or just doing a bunch of unpleasant chores around the house. Bite the bullet and start as soon as you can. Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, reducing small stressors can have a profound impact on your overall quality of life.

2) Don’t Fight Alone

When the going gets tough, don’t be afraid to reach out. Talking to a friend about your situation can have a profoundly positive effect on the way you think about your problem and give you insights into what you might be able to do to fix things – and this is without your friend doing anything other than being a good listener. Your friends can often offer recommendations from their experience in similar situations and volunteer valuable help so you don’t have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You shouldn’t expect them to solve your problems for you. Sometimes, however, your issue will turn out to be something that they can fix almost effortlessly. When you suffer alone, you miss the opportunity to take advantage of this.

Some issues are difficult to share with friends. Other times, you’re stuck in a long-term rut. Other issues are just hard. If you feel like you’re not in a good place mentally, reach out to a mental health professional sooner rather than later. Counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists won’t judge you or your problems. Instead, they’ll try to offer as much help as they can and give you a safe space that you can use to figure out how you can tackle life’s issues. These days, affordable therapy is accessible and easy to find. Don’t wait until you’ve fallen into a deep rut to seek out a professional. Instead, try to talk to one as soon as you can to keep your journey as happy and healthy as possible.

3) Remember the Importance of Self-Care

The harder life is, the easier it is to forget about self-care activities. Try not to do this. Instead, try to do the opposite. Tougher tasks and stressful days will require you to be at your best, meaning you should put even more effort into taking care of yourself.

First, prioritize the basics. Try to make sure you get plenty of sleep. Set a strict bedtime, practice good sleep hygiene, and don’t let friends and work trick you into staying up late when you don’t want to.

Eat well. Make sure you’re following a healthy diet. Spending time on meal prep might seem impossible in your current situation, but you’ll appreciate your easy meals later on when it’s time to eat. It’ll also give you a forced break from the other activities that are stressing you out. Even if meal prep isn’t your thing, make sure that you’re taking the time and effort to eat healthy foods in appropriate quantities at the right intervals. Skipping lunch will almost never help reduce your stress level.

Be sure to exercise. It’s hard to find time for exercise during a difficult life period, but it’s something you should prioritize. Don’t limit yourself to ruling out exercise altogether because you’re too stressed or don’t have enough time to go to the gym. You can fit in several walks around your work or at home between other activities you’re doing or even go for a jog, do yoga, and do other types of exercise you like. Exercise will help increase your energy levels and allow you to maintain a more positive outlook during the rest of your day. It’ll also provide a forced break. Many of the most successful individuals on the planet swear by their daily jog or walk. It’s often the source of their best ideas, as It gives them an incredible opportunity to tackle their issues from a different perspective.

Take care of your environment. If you’re stressed, it’s easy to fall behind on keeping your house clean or let your workplace become messy. This can have a pretty big effect on your mental outlook. If you can, try to find time to build an environment that you enjoy spending time in. It might not seem like a great use of your time immediately, but you’ll be a lot happier when you work and relax in the future.

None of these things are one-time activities. All of these self-care journeys are just that: journeys. When life throws an unexpected curveball, don’t start sprinting backward along these other paths. Even if you don’t think you can make progress forward in terms of your diet, exercise, sleep schedule, or environment, do your best to at least stay where you are at the very least. This will have a profound impact on giving you the stability you need to tackle your other problems.

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4) Take Time For Yourself

You’re valuable. When you’re working through a rough patch, it’s easy to lose track of this idea. It’s even easier to neglect to take proper action and fail to treat yourself well. Try not to do this! The harder life is, the more important it is to take a little bit of time off and do things you enjoy.

No matter how hard your problems seem, make space for you to have fun. This might mean going on a hike, having a spa day, spending time with friends, or seeing a movie. If you can’t find time for these activities, try to find ways to treat yourself within the confines of your busy schedule. This might mean ordering a nice meal, having something you like shipped to your house, or upgrading your environment. You’re worth a bit of time, money, and effort. Not only will these activities help you feel better, but they’ll also give you space from your problems and provide a valuable break for your brain.

You shouldn’t ever let yourself feel guilty for taking a short, appropriate break for self-care. That said, be mindful of your goal here: you want to sharpen the saw, so to speak, not run from your problems. Some people go overboard and take too much time off, allowing their issues to grow more frightening while they’re away. Using your weekend as personal time instead of going into the office is probably a good idea. Taking a whole week off of work when you’ve got a major project deadline approaching probably isn’t.

5) Work Through It

A lot of the time, our biggest problems can be solved by a blast of concentrated effort. This can be hard for a lot of reasons: our problems might be abstract, meaning we won’t see progress. The actual work involved is often tedious, difficult, or both. We’re also not always used to giving it 100% every day, making the shift into high gear a hard, unfamiliar process.

Don’t let these barriers dissuade you. Instead, try to put your best foot forward every day and make as much progress towards your goals as you can. Even if you don’t see results, concentrate on doing your best. You’ll start building positive habits, making it easier to continue. As long as you don’t give up, you’ll continue to make positive progress and eventually hit your ideal endpoint.

Remember: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Even if you can’t give 100% on a given day, show up and try to get something done. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. No matter how bad you feel, try to at least put your shoes on and walk out to the path. From there, it’ll be a lot easier to make a few steps and bring your destination a little bit closer. You might not be able to see it, but it’ll really help when it comes to the overall journey.

6) Compare Carefully

Modern social media makes it almost trivial to feel small. All you need to do is open your favorite website or app to be blasted with images of the most beautiful and successful people in the world.

Try to avoid comparing your situations with the ones that you see on the internet. Photos, posts, and stories have to survive an incredibly competitive environment to show up on your feed. This means that you’ll only see the prettiest faces, the best houses, and the most talented people out of literally millions of submissions. If you compare yourself to the very best in any given category, you’re almost always going to come up short, even if you’re incredibly talented and successful yourself.

Try not to compare yourself with your friends and family either. Everyone’s journey through life is different. Some people are blessed with incredible, unfair opportunities. Others aren’t. This means that you shouldn’t feel bad because a friend is more successful than you. It also means you shouldn’t try to base your self-worth on how much better you’re doing than other people.

You can, however, learn a lot from successful people. This means that occasional, mindful comparison of specific things can be incredibly valuable. If you’re in sales, for example, don’t get hung up on the difference between your monthly sales and the person with the most sales in the department. Do think about comparing the way you both approach a sale and see what they do differently. Other people struggle with the same sort of obstacles and challenges that you do. Taking the time to analyze their approach and seeing how they overcome these challenges and obstacles can give you new tools and techniques that you can use to make your own life easier.

Everyone’s journey through life is different. One thing that we all have in common, however, is that all of our journeys get rough at some point. When this happens, things will be tough. There usually isn’t a miracle fix. It happens to everyone. You can, however, take some steps to make things a bit easier on yourself and maximize your ability to work through your problems. Fix what you can fix, accept what you can’t, and put yourself in a position where you can accept the help of others. Look for affordable therapy, make time for self-care activities, and stay on top of your basic needs. Put in as much work as you can to move forward and get past your current obstacles. Finally, make sure that you’re not basing your self-worth on unfair comparisons to others while keeping yourself open to learning new techniques and skills from people in similar situations.

Utilizing these techniques and ideas won’t magic your problems away. It will still take a lot of time, energy, and effort to get through your rough patch. You might not see results right away. Over time, though, you’ll begin to pull out of your slump and make progress toward tackling your personal challenges. These techniques will make the journey a little bit faster and more pleasant, putting you back on the path you want to be on.