The truth does not cease to exist when it is forgotten or ignored.

You know how you can hear or read something dozens of times in various ways before it finally sinks in? The truths listed below fall firmly into that category — timeless lessons that many of us probably learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, yet for whatever reason we tend to forget in the heat of the moment.

This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all…

1. Life is relatively short and nothing is guaranteed.

We know deep down that life is short, and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are infinitely surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind, and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is, and so you find yourself off balance for a moment, before your mind shifts back to reality and how the world really is.

So let that reminder be a wake-up call to truly live your life today! Don’t ignore death, but don’t be afraid of life either. Be afraid of a life you never lived because you were too afraid to take positive action. Death is not the greatest loss in life, and neither is injury. The greatest loss is what dies inside you while you’re still alive and capable.

Even when life gets messy, be bold, be courageous, be a scared to death, and then take the next step anyway. Invest your heart and soul into whatever you have right in front of you. Bring passion into otherwise ordinary moments… Love what you do, until you can do what you love. Love where you are, until you can be where you love. Love the people you’re with, until you can be with the people you love most. This is the way we find more happiness, opportunity, and peace on the average day.

2. Everything will change again soon.

Embrace change and realize that it’s necessary. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end most forms of change are worthwhile because they force us to grow. So keep yourself in check right now…

What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.

Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event. And these events are always happening — like all the senseless violence and drama we see in our world today.

So just remember, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. Accept it. Breathe. Be where you are. You’re where you need to be right now. There’s a time and place for everything, and every hard step is necessary. Just keep doing your best, and don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into your life. When it’s meant to be, it will be.

3. Changing your response is what puts you back in control.

Have patience with everything that remains imperfect or unfinished in your head and heart. And realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard for what you believe in. This is your life and it’s governed by your daily decisions. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your results preach louder than your lips. May your inner sense of satisfaction be your noise in the end.

Remind yourself that taking a meaningful step forward right now is worth it. Even if the road ahead seems long and rough — even if there are lots of unknowns — be brave enough to stand up for yourself and control the direction of your momentum. And remember that the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because as Viktor Frankl said, when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself — to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything! (Note: Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the Passion & Growth chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)

4. Life’s storms can be a source of long-term strength.

Hard times are like strong storms that blow against you. And it’s not just that these storms hold you back from places you are trying to go. They also tear away from you all but the essential parts of your ego that cannot be torn, so that you are left only with the foundation of who you really are.

Ultimately you realize you are here to endure these storms, to sacrifice your time and risk your heart. You are here to be bruised by life. And when it happens that you are hurt, or betrayed, or rejected, let yourself sit quietly with your eyes closed and remember all the good times you had, and all the sweetness you tasted, and everything you learned. Tell yourself how amazing it was to live, and then open your eyes and live some more.

Because to never struggle would be to never grow. You must let go of who you were so you can become who you are. Again, it is within the depths of the strongest and darkest storms that you often discover within you an inextinguishable light, and it is this light that illuminates the path forward.

5. You don’t need all the answers right now.

Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going, and train yourself to love and appreciate this sensation of freedom. Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly. And as you soar around you still may not know where you’re traveling to. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the opening of your wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.

Truth be told, some of the greatest outcomes that transpire in your life will be the ones you never even knew you wanted. As long as you keep your mind open to new perspectives while you’re moving forward, there really are no totally wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to travel. And you never can be certain what’s around the corner.  It could be everything, or it could be nothing. You keep gliding steadily forward, and then one day you realize you’ve come a long way from where you started.

All details aside, someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good outcomes will likely transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the messy times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself…

“How in the world did I get through all of that?”

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to give yourself grace for the times when you’ve lacked clarity, and for the poor choices that accidentally hurt others or yourself. Give yourself grace for being young and reckless. We’ve all made mistakes and been foolish at times. These are vital lessons, and what matters most right now is the willingness to learn and grow from them.

But before you go, please leave Marc and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay. Your feedback is important to us.

Which one of the points above resonated the most today?

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

If we have learned just one thing recently, it’s that we need to be gentle with ourselves and others. We’re all in this world together, and we all get weary at times. Be recklessly gracious!

The wisest and most wonderful people you have ever met are likely those who have been shattered in some way. Yes, life often creates the best humans by breaking them first. It’s the painstaking journey of falling apart and coming back together that fills their hearts and minds with a level of compassion, understanding, and deep-loving wisdom that can’t possibly be acquired any other way.

Angel and I have worked with hundreds of these incredible people over the past 15+ years through various forms of coaching and live events. In many cases they came to us feeling stuck and lost, unaware of their own brilliance, blind to the fact that their struggles have strengthened them and given them a resilient upper hand in this crazy world. And many of these people are now our biggest heroes. Over the years they have given us as much, if not more, than we have given them — they continue to be some of our greatest sources of inspiration.

So today, to honor these unlikely heroes of ours, we want to share a selection of their life experiences with you (with full permission of course). Below you will find excerpts from 20 emails and text messages we’ve received over the years — they are super short but incredibly powerful accounts of real life, real struggle, and the human resilience required to take the next step. There’s definitely something here for all of us to think about and reflect on:

1. “It’s been exactly ten years since my controlling, abusive ex-fiancé sold my favorite guitar which cost almost $2,000 and took me ages to save for. He sold it on the day I broke up with him. When I went to pick up my belongings, he was proud that he had sold it to a local pawnshop. Luckily, I managed to track down the guy who bought it from the pawnshop. The guy was really sweet and gave it back to me for free, on the condition that I join him on his front porch for an hour and play guitar with him. He grabbed a second guitar and we ended up sitting there on his porch for the rest of the afternoon playing music, talking, and laughing. He’s been my husband for almost nine years now, and we are happier now than ever.”

2. “The happiest moment of my life is still that split-second a year ago when, as I laid crushed under a 2000-pound car, I realized my husband and nine-year-old son were out of the vehicle and completely uninjured.”

3. “Today, on my 47th birthday, I re-read the death note I wrote on my 27th birthday about two minutes before my girlfriend showed up at my apartment and told me, ‘I’m pregnant.’ She was honestly the only reason I didn’t follow through with it. Suddenly I felt I had something to live for. Today she’s my wife and we’ve been happily married for 19 years. And my daughter, who is now a 19-year-old college student, has two younger brothers. I re-read my death note every year on my birthday as a reminder to be thankful — I’m thankful I got a second chance at life.”

4. “Last night just before bed, my daughter, whom I adopted three years ago at the age of seven, called me ‘mom’ for the very first time.”

5. “It’s been five years since my mom — my best friend in the world — was in a car accident that resulted in her losing all of her long-term memory from before the crash. When I was little my mom and I used to quote a Winnie The Pooh book as an inside joke. One of us would ask, “Have you ever seen a dragon fly?” And the other would reply, ‘I have, I have seen a dragon fly!’ This evening I was sitting with her while we were watching TV and I randomly asked, ‘Have you ever seen a dragon fly?’ And she responded with, ‘I have, I have seen a dragon fly!’ We stared at each other for a prolonged moment, and then she jumped out of her seat and exclaimed, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember!’”

6. “I’m sitting in my hospital bed waiting to have both my breasts removed. But in a strange way I feel like the lucky one. Up until now I have had no health problems. I’m a 64-year-old woman in the last room at the end of the hall before the pediatric division of the hospital begins. Over the past few hours I have watched dozens of cancer patients being wheeled by in wheelchairs and rolling beds. None of these patients could be a day older than 17. And right now, I’m feeling like the lucky one.”

7. “My dad is a blind cancer survivor. He lost both his eyes when he was in his early 30’s to a rare form of cancer. Despite this, he raised my sister and I, and took care of my mom who was in and out of rehab for alcoholism and depression. My mom is a fully recovered alcoholic now, my sister and I have graduated college, and my parents are still together and back to being happy. I’m certain none of this would have been possible if my dad hadn’t been such a resilient, positive force in our lives. My dad’s mental strength literally saved our family. And he’s the one who pointed me towards your blog, which he reads daily with text to speech software.”

8. “Earlier this week I went to the doctor’s office because I was experiencing awful stomach pains. They ran some tests, took blood, and told me they’d contact me in a few days. I assumed the pain was at least partially due to stress. Three weeks ago, at the age of 35, my husband, the love of my life, died from a heart attack. And this afternoon I felt another wave of despair come over me, feeling like I had nothing left. As I sat there the phone rang; it was the doctor. She said, ‘You’re perfectly healthy. You’re pregnant.’ And in that moment I cried, happy tears, for the first time three weeks. Because a couple months ago a fertility clinic discovered a condition with my husband that they said would take ‘a small miracle’ for us to get pregnant.”

9. “I’m a war veteran. Upon arriving home 15 years ago from my final tour in Afghanistan, I found out that my wife had been cheating on me and had spent almost all of our savings. I had nowhere to stay and no phone and was suffering from it all. One of my close friends from high school, Shaun, and his wife, seeing that I was in need of help, took me in and let me live with their family of five. They helped me deal with my divorce and gave me space to get my life together. Since then I’ve moved into my own place, rediscovered my passion for life, opened a fairly successful local diner, and my friend’s kids call me Uncle Jay when they see me. The way they supported me and adopted me into their family in my desperate time of need is now the guidepost for how I try to live my life.”

10. “I’ve been dying of Leukemia since my 17th birthday. I was sent home from the hospital for my final few weeks 156 days ago. But now I’m back at the hospital being treated again, because my doctors now believe there is hope. And so do I.”

11. “Today, after my daughter’s funeral, and several hours of tearful soul-searching, I started going through my phone and deleting two weeks’ worth of condolence messages. There were so many of them that I eventually selected ‘delete all,’ but one message didn’t delete. It was one of the last messages my daughter left me before she died, and it was still marked as ‘new.’ Sometimes my voicemail forces me to listen to old messages before I can delete them, so played it, even though I really didn’t want to at that moment. My daughter said, “Hey dad, I just wanted to let you know I’m okay and I’m home now.”

12. “After three years of separation, and lots of regretful drama, my ex-wife and I finally resolved our differences and we met for dinner last night. We laughed and chatted for almost five hours. Then just before we parted ways, she handed me a large envelope. In it were 20 ‘love and forgiveness’ letters she wrote me over the last three years. There was a post-it note on the envelope that read, ‘Letters I was too stubborn to send.’ And even crazier is that I wrote her a few letters too, and I still have them stored on my work computer’s desktop.”

13. “Yesterday, after completing ten straight months of rehab at a live-in treatment center, I spent my first day out with my five-year-old daughter. We sat on my parent’s front porch all day making construction paper collages. The sight and sound of my daughter’s laughter and the simple pleasures of cutting construction paper and peeling Elmer’s glue off our hands are the best reminders I’ve had in ten months of why I’m choosing sobriety and life.”

14. “I was born on this day 57 years ago, but today isn’t my birthday, at least not this year. Your birthday doesn’t really come when you’re sitting in a hospital room hoping your wife of 25 years wakes up from a coma. And although the doctors are optimistic, I’m still here praying, and waiting, patiently.”

15. “Last night there was a family of six staying at the hotel where I work. They were hanging out in the lobby sharing stories, laughing, and taking turns reading excerpts from a joke book. I asked them where they were from. ‘Oh, we’re from here,’ the father said. ‘Our house literally burned down yesterday, but miraculously all of us got out safely. And that makes today a true blessing!’”

16. “I realized that although it was the darkest period of my life, if I had not worked through and overcome those five long years of depression, I would not be here now smiling so appreciatively at the sunrise through my living room window.”

17. “It took years, but when I finally found the courage to divorce him after decades of abuse, I found myself feeling alone because our closest mutual friends continued to believe his lies over my tears. But I’m finally making new friends — real friends — and feeling so much better now.”

18. “I recently lost the respect of a few people I love, and the desire to hurt myself, when I finally told everyone the truth about who I really am and what I have decided to do with my life. In a nutshell, I have chosen to love and honor myself, instead of convincing others to do it for me every day.”

19. “At 8 A.M. this morning, after nearly four months of lifelessness in her hospital bed, we took my mom off life support. And her heart continued beating on its own. And she continued breathing on her own. Then this evening, when I squeezed her hand three times, she squeezed back three times.”

20. “This afternoon, at the age of 70, I graduated from The University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in business. I’ve been a successful business owner most of my life, but I decided to earn my degree to fulfill a promise I made to my mom before she lost her battle with cancer on my 20th birthday, just over 50 years ago.”

Growth Through Life’s Ups and Downs

The stories above obviously hold many lessons, but as mentioned earlier, one lesson I think they collectively share is that life’s challenges don’t just break a person, they can also shape a person…

Challenging times are like strong storms that blow against your soul. And it’s not just that these storms hold you back from places you might otherwise go, they also tear away from you all but the essential parts of you that cannot be torn, so that afterward you see yourself as you really are, without all the distractions that have been blinding you. In a very real sense, you are here to endure these storms, to risk your heart — to be bruised by life at times. And when it happens that you are hurt, or rejected, or knocked off course, let yourself remember that life’s challenges are necessary.

In all seasons of life, your goal shouldn’t be to seek a perfect and pain-free existence, but to live an imperfect and sometimes challenging one in radical amazement. To get up every morning and take a good look around in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is extraordinary in its own right. Every day is a gift. To be spiritual in any way is to be amazed in every way.

And it’s important to note, too, that Angel and I don’t just preach. We’ve endured our own pain, crawled through our own strong storms, and learned from firsthand experience many times over. Over the past couple of decades we have dealt with several severe hardships, including the sudden death of a sibling, the loss of a best friend to illness, significant betrayal from a business partner, an unexpected breadwinning employment layoff that forced us out of our home, and more. These experiences were brutal. Each of them knocked us down hard and kept us down for a while. But when our time of mourning was over after each hardship, we pressed forward with a greater understanding and respect for life. (Angel and I discuss our journey and life story more in the books “Getting Back to Happy” and “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to own your life experiences, and to not let life’s bitterness steal your sweetness. Remember, no life story is one chapter long, no chapter tells the whole tale, and no single event entirely defines who you are. Give yourself grace when you must, and keep turning the pages that need to be turned.

But before you go, please leave Angel and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this post. Your feedback is important to us.

Which tiny story above resonated the most today? Anything else to share?

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

Article created by: Justinas Keturka

Welcome to the unofficial warm blanket of the internet where pandemic stress is put on hold for as long as you’re there and everything looks just a little bit better. The subreddit called r/GetMotivated welcomes you with a soul-soothing “We’re glad you made it.” Because they know how hard it is to escape the harrowing reality of sad, fake, and plain ‘can’t take it no more’ news.

But here, a whopping 17 million members are sharing all things motivation that promise to “help you finally get up and do what you *know* you need to do.” And sometimes it’s all that you need.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight to the land of pure wholesomeness where strangers who share these motivational posts suddenly become your only support group.

The world is full of struggle. It is also full of overcoming.

Character and wisdom are both sculpted over time. These qualities come with loss, lessons, and triumphs. They come after doubts, second guesses, and exploring unknowns. If there was a definitive path to personal growth, everyone would be on it. Truth be told, the seeds of your success are often planted in your past failures, and some of your best stories will likely arise from overcoming your greatest struggles.

Marc and I learned all of that the hard way. Over the past fifteen years we have dealt with several significant hardships, including the sudden death of a sibling, the loss of a best friend to illness, betrayal from a business partner, an unexpected breadwinning employment layoff, and more. These experiences were brutal. Each of them knocked us down and kept us down for a while. But when our time of mourning was over after each tragedy, we pressed forward, stronger, and with a greater understanding and respect for life.

So my challenge to you today is this: Start looking at life’s hard truths and challenges as paths that ultimately lead to your growth. Easier said than done, of course, but here are some key points to consider:

1. The first few steps are rarely easy.

Momentum takes effort to build. There’s always some friction in the initial steps, which means the beginnings to good journeys are often hard. But it’s these hard steps that pave the way forward. So be strong and keep going — it will be worth it in the end. Truly, the greatest miracle of your success from this point forward will not be that you finished, it will be that you found the strength and courage to begin, day in and day out.

And remember, it’s not that those who are strong never get weak in the knees, or that they never hold their breath just before they embark, it’s that while their knees are shaking they still encourage themselves to inhale as they take the next step forward.

2. Progress in life comes slowly and gradually.

There are no shortcuts. Progress comes from the process. The secret to your success is found in your daily routine. So trust the journey you are on. And remind yourself that true purpose has no time limit. True purpose has no deadline. Don’t stress and overwhelm yourself. Just do what you can, consistently.

Truly, persistence is the single most common characteristic of high achievers in all walks of life. They simply refuse to give up on the things that matter most to them. They have learned that the longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will gradually happen in your favor.

3. You will always have less control than you desire.

The only thing you can absolutely control in life is how you react to things out of your control, and there’s a lot you can’t control. The better you adapt to this reality, the more powerful your highs will be, and the more quickly you’ll be able to bounce back from the lows. In other words, the most powerful changes happen in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over everything you don’t.

As your life unfolds, you will often realize that many of the times you thought you were being rejected from something good, you were in fact being redirected to something better. You simply don’t have to control everything to find growth, happiness, or success. You just need to do your best every day, let go, and let life happen the way it’s supposed to. Because oftentimes the outcomes you can’t change end up changing you and helping you grow. (Note: Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the Adversity chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)

4. You can’t avoid risk without avoiding growth.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, “When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”

Living is a risk. Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little uncertain sometimes, then you’re not doing it right. Don’t worry about mistakes and failures, worry about what you’re giving up when you don’t even try. Worry about the life you’re not living and the joy you’re forgoing, as you merely exist in the safety of your comfort zone 24/7. Give yourself permission to be one of the people who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them and grew stronger.

5. Your most common daily problems live in your head.

The mind is indeed your biggest battleground on a daily basis. It’s the place where the fiercest conflict resides. It’s where half the things you feared would happen, never actually happened. It’s where your expectations get the best of you. And it’s where you fall victim to your own train of thought time and time again. Truly, the primary cause of unhappiness and defeat on the average day is rarely the current situation, but instead your inner resistance to it. Inner growth on the other hand usually comes down to acceptance of the current situation, and then taking constructive action.

Human beings become quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do great things, right now, without needing anything more. When you gain trust in yourself and the present moment, you have discovered the first secret of growth and success. Because finding your way is not about going somewhere new every second; it’s about seeing familiar ground in new ways. Once you do, you will realize the only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them. (Read “The Last Lecture”.)

6. Long-term happiness can’t be bought.

To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know. Don’t be one of them. Fill your life with lots of experiences, not lots of things. Have incredible stories to tell, not incredible clutter in your closets.

Seriously, if you’d rather be surrounded by pristine objects of little significance rather than by loads of fulfilling memories, stay focused on acquiring tangible possessions. Otherwise, stop fixating on things you can touch and start caring about the things that touch you. Each of us has a unique fire in our heart for something that makes us feel alive. It’s your duty to find it and keep it lit. Promise yourself that you will stay true to your loves, your values, and your purpose through thick and thin. Let your heart and mind work as one. Do what it takes so that one day, many moons from now, you can look back at your life, take one last breath, and crack an honest smile.

7. Not everyone will support you.

If you take every insult or rude remark personally, you will be offended for the rest of your life. One of the most freeing things we learn in life is that we don’t have to agree with everyone, everyone doesn’t have to agree with us, and that it’s OK. As Bruce Lee once said, “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” Live by this quote. Don’t let the opinions of others make you forget.

Of course, it takes time to learn how to NOT judge yourself through someone else’s eyes, but once you do the world is yours to explore freely. We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own life, and we will never be happy or successful if we try to live someone else’s idea of it. So give up worrying too much about what others think of you. And remember that taking a step back to gracefully walk away from situations that threaten your peace of mind, values, morals, or self-worth, is almost always a healthy and necessary step forward.

8. You are better off without some people in your daily life.

It’s during the toughest times of your life that you’ll get to see the true colors of the people who say they care about you. Notice who sticks around and who doesn’t, and be grateful to those who leave you, for they have given you the room to grow in the space they abandoned, and the awareness to appreciate the people who loved you when you didn’t feel lovable.

Bottom line: Be okay with giving the gift of your absence to those who do not appreciate and respect your presence.

9. You can’t have joy in life without some pain.

Chuck Palahniuk once said, “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” Nothing could be closer to the truth. Some pain and sadness is necessary. Everything in life is two-sided. You can’t expect to feel pleasure without ever feeling pain, joy without ever feeling sorrow, confidence without ever feeling fearful, hope without ever feeling uncertain, etc. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin in life, with which you can buy a pain-free, trouble-free life.

Yes, life is a series of highs and lows — an adventure that requires you to take chances and actions that have the possibility of both success and failure, positive and negative outcomes, etc.

10. Life is always changing, day by day.

Growth can be painful, change can be painful, but in the end nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong. So be selective with your energy today. If you can fix a problem, fix it. If you can’t, accept it and change your thoughts about it. And whatever you do, don’t attempt to invest more energy than you have tripping over something behind you or something that only exists inside your head.

Of course, there will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. You might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won’t. Sure the sun stops shining sometimes, and you may get a huge thunderstorm or two, but eventually the sun will come out to shine. Sometimes it’s just a matter of us staying as present and positive as possible in order to make it to see the sun break through the clouds again.

And remind yourself that the trick on the average day is to enjoy the little things. Don’t wish away all your days waiting for better ones ahead. Just do your best to appreciate where you are. You’ve come a long way, and you’re still learning and growing. Be thankful for the progress and lessons. Take them and make the best of things right now.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to make your growth a priority today — to give yourself a chance to fully embrace the reminders above. Because your growth won’t always be a priority to others, and it won’t just happen automatically. Practice taking better care of yourself, moving forward, giving yourself grace along the way, and becoming a more reliable part of your own support system.

But before you go, please leave Marc and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay. Your feedback is important to us.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

“Head up, heart open. To better days!”
— T.F. Hodge

Struggling to find your motivation? Feeling unsure about the next steps?

There are just a few things you need to know right now.

This quick read is for YOU…

Once upon a time there was a woman in her mid-sixties who noticed that she had lived her entire life in the same small town. And although she had spent decades enthusiastically dreaming about traveling and seeing the world, she had never taken a single step to make this dream a reality.

Finally, she woke up on the morning of her 65th birthday and decided that now was the time! She sold all of her possessions except for some essential items she needed, packed these items into a backpack, and began her journey out into the world. The first several days on the road were amazing and filled with awe — with every step forward she felt like she was finally living the life she had dreamed.

But a few short weeks later, the days on the road started taking a toll on her. She felt misplaced and she missed the familiar comforts of her old life. As her feet and legs grew more and more sore with each new step, her mood also took a turn for the worse.

Eventually she stopped walking, took off her backpack, slammed it on the ground, and sat down beside it as tears began streaming down her cheeks. She stared hopelessly down a long winding road that once led to an amazing world, but now seemed to lead only to discomfort and unhappiness. “I have nothing! I have nothing left in my life!” she shouted out loud at the top of her lungs.

Coincidentally, a renowned guru and life adviser from a nearby village was resting quietly behind a pine tree adjacent to where the woman was sitting. When the woman began shouting, the guru heard every word and he felt it was his duty to help her. Without thinking twice, he jumped out from behind the pine tree, grabbed her backpack, and ran into the forest that lined both sides of the road. Stunned and in complete disbelief, the woman started crying even harder than before, to the point of near breathlessness.

“That backpack was all I had,” she cried.” And now it’s gone! Now everything is gone in my life!”

After roughly ten minutes of much-needed tears, the woman gradually collected her emotions, stood up again and began staggering slowly down the road. Meanwhile the guru cut through the forest and secretly placed the backpack in the middle of the road just a short distance ahead of the woman.

When the woman’s teary eyes fell upon the backpack, she almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing — everything she thought she had just lost was once again right in front of her. She couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. “Oh, thank heavens!” the woman exclaimed. “I am so grateful! Now I definitely have what I need to continue onward…”

Sometimes we need a wake-up call.

As we journey through our personal and professional lives, there will inevitably be periods of incredible frustration and despair. During those tough times, it will sometimes appear to us that we’ve lost everything, and that nothing and nobody could possibly motivate us to move onward in the direction of our dreams. But just like the woman who stumbled across the guru, we are all holding with us a backpack of support that comes in many forms — it can be a simple DM or text message from someone we respect, inspiring blog posts, insightful books, helpful neighbors, supportive communities, and so much more.

When the going gets tough — when we’ve lost our motivation and feel unsure of everything — we need to wake ourselves up and remember…

1. To trust the journey, even when we do not understand it.
2. To accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in the road ahead.
3. To start exactly where we are, use what we have, and do what we can, one step at a time.
4. To look for the blessings hidden in every struggle we face, and be willing to open our hearts and minds to them.
5. To recognize our backpack of support — our external sources of hope and motivation — before a random guru (or someone with far more crooked intentions) has to steal it from us so that we can finally see what we have always taken for granted.
6. To be present and tap into our own hearts and minds — our internal sources of hope and motivation — which have the power to push us back up on our feet and guide us down the road to our backpack of support, even when it appears to be lost forever.
7. To laugh at the confusion, live consciously in the moment, and appreciate the lessons found at each twist and turn.
8. To not compare our progress with that of others, and accept that we all need our own time to travel our own distance.
9. To see how many of the things we never wanted or expected ultimately turn out to be what we need.
10. To be OK with not ending up exactly where we intended to go, while opening ourselves up to the possibility of eventually arriving precisely in the right place at the right time.

Bottom line:

If you are struggling right now, you’ve got this!

No matter your circumstances, you always have what you need to take the next smallest step.

Or as Epicurus so profoundly said, “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

Be mindful. Be present. Keep going, one day at a time, one small step at a time.

Now it’s your turn…

Please leave a comment below and let us know:

What’s one source of motivation (or gratitude) you typically turn to when you need it most?

Anything else to share about this essay?

Angel and I would love to hear from YOU. Your feedback is important to us.

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

In 1978, James Dyson had an idea for a bagless vacuum cleaner that maintained suction. He was frustrated with what was considered to be a top-of-the-line model, which he said frequently clogged and lost cleaning power as soon as it filled with dust.

Dyson worked on his idea full-time, and after five years of work and 5,127 failed prototypes, he created the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner — the now-famous Dyson, which has since become a consumer electronics brand reaching sales of $9.6 billion in 2023. But those early years came at a cost: He was borrowing heavily from the bank to make ends meet and had accumulated over $1 million in debt.

“Eventually, I owed over a million dollars, which for a penniless person in those days, going back 30 odd years, was a lot of money,” Dyson, 78, told Entrepreneur in an interview. “I didn’t have any money.”

Related: Emma Grede Dropped Out of School at 16. Now the Skims Boss Runs a $4 Billion Empire.

But he also had “little to lose,” he says, which is why he took a chance on his vacuum idea despite the financial pit. He lost his father at a young age and felt a keen sense of ownership and passion for what he was building and for his future.

“I suppose I don’t mind living on the edge,” Dyson said. “I lost my father when I was nine years old. I had it built into me that my future was entirely down to me, and to do it on my own.”

“I wanted to do it,” he added.

^{James Dyson. Credit: Dyson}

Financial constraints made Dyson more creative because not having money taught him how to cope without it. For example, he couldn’t hire salespeople, advertisers, or promoters, so he went out himself to sell the vacuum cleaner.

“It took quite a long time,” Dyson said. “Almost every businessperson I spoke to said that I was mad.”

Related: Nick Offerman’s Side Hustle as an Actor Helps Fund the Business He Started 23 Years Ago — and Still Works at Every Day

In 1993, Dyson set up his own shop and produced the first unit of the Dyson Dual Cyclone DC-01 vacuum cleaner at a price of $399. By 1998, Dyson had sold 1.4 million units of the vacuum globally, and by 2004, the DC-01 was cemented as a commercial success, outselling its nearest competitor in the U.K. by a ratio of five to one, per Industry Week.

In recent years, Dyson’s eponymous company has reached new heights. In 2023, with a broader product portfolio, including hair tools, lighting, fans, and headphones, Dyson’s company achieved a record global revenue of £7.1 billion ($9.6 billion) and employed 6,500 workers. Revenue increased 9% from the previous year.

Now, Dyson’s net worth is reportedly around $15.3 billion, making him the third-wealthiest person in the U.K. He’s received other honors, too, including a knighthood in 2006 for his services to business.

Related: A Billionaire Founder Admits He Had ‘Horrible Habits’ — Then He Started a Morning Routine That ‘Transformed’ His Life

Dyson has certainly paid off those early debts and says he celebrates the “little successes” just as much (or even more) than the big ones. He points to Dyson hand dryers as an example — the product isn’t a “huge” business, like, say, the Dyson hair dryer, he says, but he still finds it “interesting.”

“You shouldn’t do everything in life just to get big numbers, big successes,” Dyson said. “Little successes are just as satisfying.”

^{Join top CEOs, founders, and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue, and building sustainable success.}

36 Uplifting & Motivating Quotes To Get You Through Bad Days

Everyone experiences those tough days when everything feels overwhelming, but here’s the exciting part: a simple, powerful quote can shift your mindset in an instant! Quotes aren’t just words—they’re distilled wisdom from people who’ve faced their own storms and come out stronger. They remind us that bad days are temporary, building resilience and opening doors to growth. Research shows that positive affirmations like these can reduce stress hormones and boost motivation, helping you bounce back faster. Get ready to feel inspired as we dive into 36 handpicked quotes, grouped to guide you through resilience, hope, and personal growth. Let’s turn that bad day around!

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Quotes on Resilience: Building Strength in the Storm

Bad days test our limits, but they also forge our inner strength. These quotes highlight how embracing difficulties can make us unbreakable. Drawing from psychology, resilience isn’t about avoiding pain—it’s about adapting and thriving despite it. Get excited: each one is a tool to reframe your struggles!

1. “She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.” — Terri St. Cloud
2. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
3. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J. K. Rowling
4. “You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this earth.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
5. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” — Haruki Murakami
6. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” — Winston S. Churchill
7. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” — Anne Lamott
8. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” — Steve Maraboli
9. “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” — Mary Oliver
10. “Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
11. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” — Elizabeth Edwards
12. “This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

These resilience quotes excite me because they turn pain into power! Studies from positive psychology show that viewing setbacks as growth opportunities can lower cortisol levels by 20%, making bad days feel like stepping stones.

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Quotes on Hope: Lighting the Path Forward

When bad days cloud your vision, hope is the spark that reignites possibility. These quotes educate us on hope’s science—research from the American Psychological Association links hopeful thinking to better problem-solving and reduced depression. Get pumped: Hope isn’t passive; it’s a motivator that propels you through darkness!

13. “I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.” — Malala Yousafzai
14. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Dumbledore
15. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” — Brené Brown
16. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” — Jalaluddin Rumi
17. “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” — Helen Keller
18. “For me, it’s not necessarily interesting to play a strong, fearless woman. It’s interesting to play a woman who is terrified and then overcomes that fear. It’s about the journey. Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it.” — Natalie Dormer
19. “Grief is love’s souvenir. It’s our proof that we once loved. Grief is the receipt we wave in the air that says to the world: Look! Love was once mine. I love well. Here is my proof that I paid the price.” — Glennon Doyle
20. “Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.” — Ralph Marston
21. “And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn’t have to anymore.” — Anne Lamott
22. “Yeah, there were regrets – but mostly there was an understanding – it had all brought her to here. As Terri St. Cloud reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
23. “I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” — J. K. Rowling
24. “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” — Fred Rogers

Isn’t it thrilling how hope can transform a bad day? Educational note: Hopeful quotes activate the brain’s reward centers, similar to achieving a goal, fostering optimism even in tough times.

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Quotes on Growth: Turning Bad Days Into Breakthroughs

Bad days are growth opportunities in disguise! Excitingly, neuroscience tells us that reflecting on challenges builds neural pathways for adaptability. These quotes educate on embracing change, motivating you to see every setback as a setup for a comeback.

25. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown
26. “to live in this world / you must be able / to do three things / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, / to let it go” — Mary Oliver
27. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” — Shane Koyczan
28. “Healing depends on listening with the inner ear – stopping the incessant blather, and listening. Fear keeps us chattering – fear that wells up from the past, fear of blurting out what we really fear, fear of future repercussions. It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present.” — Marion Woodman
29. “Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” — David Richo
30. “Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived…Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation… Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.” — Anne Lamott
31. “I can tell you that it takes great strength to surrender. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
32. “Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, as the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. As crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.” — Glennon Doyle Melton
33. “A Prayer: Refuse to fall down / If you cannot refuse to fall down / refuse to stay down / If you cannot refuse to stay down / lift your heart toward heaven / and like a hungry beggar / ask that it be filled. / You may be pushed down. / You may be kept from rising. / But no one can keep you from lifting your heart toward heaven only you. / It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. / The one who says nothing good came of this, is not yet listening. ” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés
34. “I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” — J. K. Rowling
35. “My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.” — Paula McLain
36. “She had fouled off of the curves that life had thrown at her.” — W.P. Kinsella

What an exciting journey through growth! These quotes teach us that bad days are classrooms, fostering empathy and wisdom. With regular reflection, you can turn negativity into fuel for a brighter tomorrow.

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Love always, Do

P.S. Want a printable PDF of these 36 quotes plus 10 more bonus ones with journaling prompts to make them even more impactful? Comment “BAD DAYS” below and I’ll DM you everything!

Related on LiveLaughLoveDo: → Why Dark Chocolate Might Be The Sweetest Way To Lower Diabetes Risk → Need A Sweet Treat? Try This Gooey, Protein-Packed Chocolate Chip Skillet → 5 Antioxidants That Fight Free Radicals & Reduce Cancer Risk → Want To Get The Most Benefits From Turmeric? Always Pair It With This

Let’s embrace the motivation together!

Savannah Guthrie stood her ground about what personal matters she wanted to write about in her book — and her divorce was off the table.

“I don’t want to talk about getting divorced,” the journalist, 53, told host Monica Lewinsky on the Tuesday, July 1, episode of her “Reclaiming” podcast. “It was horrible, sad and it broke my heart. It took me years to recover. I’m not blaming anyone, but I really don’t want to get into it.”

Guthrie was previously married to Mark Orchard from 2005 to 2009 before she found The One with Michael Feldman. Feldman and the Today host wed in 2014 and share two children, Vale, 10, and Charley, 8.

Last year, Guthrie published Mostly What God Does, which included a series of personal essays broaching the subjects of faith, love, presence, grace, hope, gratitude and more. The spiritual book also included a disclaimer that let readers know that Gurthie wasn’t going to touch on some personal matters.

Related: Savannah Guthrie’s Ups and Downs Over the Years

As upbeat as she may seem on TV, Savannah Guthrie knows what it’s like to deal with loss. Alongside her incredible success as the cohost of Today, the television journalist has also had her fair share of hardships throughout the years. Guthrie — who shares daughter Vale and son Charley, named after her father, with […]

“The disclaimer was basically like, ‘Look, if you think you’re going to write about faith and try to — certainly not answer — but discuss some of these hardest questions. Despite the fact the picture I’ve just drawn … I’m not writing a whitewash,’” she reflected. “I tried to at least talk about some of the hardest subjects there are about loss and about injustice. I try to take on all those things and just examine them and reflect on them — certainly not solve them.”

Guthrie acknowledged that she’s nowhere near being a “theologian” and occasionally attended “vacation bible school.”

“I’m just a lay person, so take it with a grain,” she said. “But also you might be wondering, it seems like you, right now, have it all kind of going for you. You’re married, you’ve got these two kids, you got this great job, like what problems do you have? So I wanted to say I have experienced adversity, but I don’t really want to tell you about the depths of that. Because some of that was just too personal and too embarrassing.”

While Guthrie set a boundary on what she would and wouldn’t share, she did include some “embarrassing” journal entries and notes. She also noted that she doesn’t believe in a “hierarchy of pain” as all people have their struggles.

“I’m not gonna say who had it worse,” she said. “If we did, I wouldn’t be in the top … but I have had my moments and I have had my sadnesses.”

In her disclaimer, Guthrie advised readers not to drive themselves “crazy” trying to pinpoint what she was talking about.

“Look, some things happened and when I’m writing about them, this isn’t in a vacuum, but I don’t want to go there … I don’t want to give you the gory details, but I do want to share with you,” she explained. “I understand you might have these questions, and maybe this won’t be enough for you, but I just felt like I had to.”

Guthrie added that when she was in the writing process, she never got any “pushback” on including the disclaimer.

The world is full of struggle. It is also full of overcoming.

Character and wisdom are both sculpted over time. These qualities come with loss, lessons, and triumphs. They come after doubts, second guesses, and exploring unknowns. If there was a definitive path to personal growth, everyone would be on it. Truth be told, the seeds of your success are often planted in your past failures, and some of your best stories will likely arise from overcoming your greatest struggles.

Marc and I learned all of that the hard way. Over the past fifteen years we have dealt with several significant hardships, including the sudden death of a sibling, the loss of a best friend to illness, betrayal from a business partner, an unexpected breadwinning employment layoff, and more. These experiences were brutal. Each of them knocked us down and kept us down for a while. But when our time of mourning was over after each tragedy, we pressed forward, stronger, and with a greater understanding and respect for life.

So my challenge to you today is this: Start looking at life’s hard realities and challenges as paths that ultimately lead to your growth. Easier said than done, of course, but here are some key points to consider:

1. The first few steps forward are rarely easy.

Momentum takes effort to build. There’s always some friction in the initial steps, which means the beginnings to good journeys are often hard. But it’s these hard steps that pave the way forward. So be strong and keep going — it will be worth it in the end. Truly, the greatest miracle of your success from this point forward will not be that you finished, it will be that you found the strength and courage to begin, day in and day out.

And remember, it’s not that those who are strong never get weak in the knees, or that they never hold their breath just before they embark, it’s that while their knees are shaking they still encourage themselves to inhale as they take the next step forward.

2. Progress in life comes slowly and gradually.

There are no shortcuts. Progress comes from the process. The secret to your success is found in your daily routine. So trust the journey you are on. And remind yourself that true purpose has no time limit. True purpose has no deadline. Don’t stress and overwhelm yourself. Just do what you can, consistently.

Truly, persistence is the single most common characteristic of high achievers in all walks of life. They simply refuse to give up on the things that matter most to them. They have learned that the longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will gradually happen in your favor.

3. You will always have less control than you desire.

The only thing you can absolutely control in life is how you react to things out of your control, and there’s a lot you can’t control. The better you adapt to this reality, the more powerful your highs will be, and the more quickly you’ll be able to bounce back from the lows. In other words, the most powerful changes happen in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over everything you don’t.

As your life unfolds, you will often realize that many of the times you thought you were being rejected from something good, you were in fact being redirected to something better. You simply don’t have to control everything to find growth, happiness, or success. You just need to do your best every day, let go, and let life happen the way it’s supposed to. Because oftentimes the outcomes you can’t change end up changing you and helping you grow. (Note: Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the Adversity chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)

4. You can’t avoid risk without avoiding growth.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, “When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”

Living is a risk. Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little uncertain sometimes, then you’re not doing it right. Don’t worry about mistakes and failures, worry about what you’re giving up when you don’t even try. Worry about the life you’re not living and the joy you’re forgoing, as you merely exist in the safety of your comfort zone 24/7. Give yourself permission to be one of the people who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them and grew stronger.

5. Your most common daily problems are mostly in your head.

The mind is indeed your biggest battleground on a daily basis. It’s the place where the fiercest conflict resides. It’s where half the things you feared would happen, never actually happened. It’s where your expectations get the best of you. And it’s where you fall victim to your own train of thought time and time again. Truly, the primary cause of unhappiness and defeat on the average day is rarely the current situation, but instead your inner resistance to it. Inner growth on the other hand usually comes down to acceptance of the current situation, and then taking constructive action.

Human beings become quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do great things, right now, without needing anything more. When you gain trust in yourself and the present moment, you have discovered the first secret of growth and success. Because finding your way is not about going somewhere new every second; it’s about seeing familiar ground in new ways. Once you do, you will realize the only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them. (Read “The Last Lecture”.)

6. Long-term happiness can’t be bought (it can be earned).

To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know. Don’t be one of them. Fill your life with lots of experiences, not lots of things. Have incredible stories to tell, not incredible clutter in your closets.

Seriously, if you’d rather be surrounded by pristine objects of little significance rather than by loads of fulfilling memories, stay focused on acquiring tangible possessions. Otherwise, stop fixating on things you can touch and start caring about the things that touch you. Each of us has a unique fire in our heart for something that makes us feel alive. It’s your duty to find it and keep it lit. Promise yourself that you will stay true to your loves, your values, and your purpose through thick and thin. Let your heart and mind work as one. Do what it takes so that one day, many moons from now, you can look back at your life, take one final breath, and crack an honest smile.

7. Not everyone will support you.

If you take every insult or rude remark personally, you will be offended for the rest of your life. One of the most freeing things we learn in life is that we don’t have to agree with everyone, everyone doesn’t have to agree with us, and that it’s OK. As Bruce Lee once said, “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” Live by this quote. Don’t let the opinions of others make you forget.

Of course, it takes time to learn how to NOT judge yourself through someone else’s eyes, but once you do the world is yours to explore freely. We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own life, and we will never be happy or successful if we try to live someone else’s idea of it. So give up worrying too much about what others think of you. And remember that taking a step back to gracefully walk away from situations that threaten your peace of mind, values, morals, or self-worth, is almost always a healthy and necessary step forward.

8. You are better off without some people in your daily life.

It’s during the toughest times of your life that you’ll get to see the true colors of the people who say they care about you. Notice who sticks around and who doesn’t, and be grateful to those who leave you, for they have given you the room to grow in the space they abandoned, and the awareness to appreciate the people who loved you when you didn’t feel lovable.

Bottom line: Be okay with giving the gift of your absence to those who do not appreciate and respect your presence.

9. You can’t have joy in life without some pain.

Chuck Palahniuk once said, “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” Nothing could be closer to the truth. Some pain and sadness is necessary. Everything in life is two-sided. You can’t expect to feel pleasure without ever feeling pain, joy without ever feeling sorrow, confidence without ever feeling fearful, hope without ever feeling uncertain, etc. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin in life, with which you can buy a pain-free, trouble-free life.

Yes, life is a series of highs and lows — an adventure that requires you to take chances and actions that have the possibility of both success and failure, positive and negative outcomes, etc.

10. Life is always changing, day by day.

Growth can be painful, change can be painful, but in the end nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong. So be selective with your energy today. If you can fix a problem, fix it. If you can’t, accept it and change your thoughts about it. And whatever you do, don’t attempt to invest more energy than you have tripping over something behind you or something that only exists inside your head.

Of course, there will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. You might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won’t. Sure the sun stops shining sometimes, and you may get a huge thunderstorm or two, but eventually the sun will come out to shine. Sometimes it’s just a matter of us staying as present and positive as possible in order to make it to see the sun break through the clouds again.

And remind yourself that the trick on the average day is to enjoy the little things. Don’t wish away all your days waiting for better ones ahead. Just do your best to appreciate where you are. You’ve come a long way, and you’re still learning and growing. Be thankful for the progress and lessons. Take them and make the best of things right now.

Now it’s your turn…

Yes, it’s your turn to make your growth a priority today — to give yourself a chance to fully embrace the reminders above. Because your growth won’t always be a priority to others, and it won’t just happen automatically. Practice taking better care of yourself, moving forward, giving yourself grace along the way, and becoming a more reliable part of your own support system.

But before you go, please leave Marc and me a comment below and let us know what you think of this essay. Your feedback is important to us.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.