Thank You For The Struggle
The best of us comes out in the worst of times.
When times are hard, they force us to work harder, think smarter and find new levels of resilience. When times are tough, we have the chance to get even tougher.
Very often it’s easy to look back on something that felt “bad” and later appreciate that it was in our highest interest for leading us onto x, y and z. But before the gift of hindsight, we can feel crushed, lost and bewildered when a crisis strikes (imagine The Tower tarot card!) Even if it’s not a sudden crisis — testing relationships or jobs can drag out a struggle period and make it feel more and more intense over time.
To solve this, I’m trying to maximise the utility of what I call the best outcome time lag. It means searching for the positives when only the negatives are obvious and trusting with complete faith that everything will always work out in our highest good. As I’ve said before — without faith, we don’t move mountains and it is always too easy to give up. (read Keep The Faith here)
But Liz, this struggle doesn’t feel so good…
Struggles can be beautiful if we let them because there are lessons interwoven between the fabric of our existence. When they are pulled apart and stretched — the lessons can finally be released and rise to the surface. This is why all trials and tribulations are really a wonderful thing. We move forward, we grow and we learn. If we can be thankful for the outcomes in the midst of the struggle period, then we are truly living in a state of gratitude and honouring our full vibrational frequency. If we can live from a high vibrational frequency as much as possible, then we are easing into beautiful new realities all the time and attracting more of the goodness that we find easier to love.
One of the best concepts that I’ve learnt this year is Caroline Dweck’s distinction between a “growth” or a “fixed” mindset. Superachievers like Arnold Schwartzenegger and Mohammed Ali have a growth mindset because they’re always looking for the next struggle in order to grow and elevate to their next level. People with a fixed mindset will never reach the same heights of greatness because they may be doing well, but they find too much comfort in the tried and tested route that they already know. In other words, they are trying to sidestep the struggle.
In order to truly grow, we have to flow with the struggle. Embrace it and sometimes even look for it when the next level is calling us. Breaking boundaries is not comfortable, and clearing out relationships and clutter to make way for a life upgrade is definitely not comfortable either. But what is on the other side of the struggle is great, and so we should be grateful for the struggle as the vessel which takes us there.
Whether we like it or not, the struggle is our shuttle bus between realities and our teacher of wisdom. When we thank the teacher, we respect the lessons and acknowledge their value to us.
Saying thank you for the struggle may not always be easy, but it will always be worth it once we receive its parting gifts on the other side.
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