Hard Times

Everyone faces hard times in life. Bad stuff happens to everyone so eventually your number is going to come up. Although we do whatever we can to prevent trouble, some of it is simply the unfolding of our lives.

The challenge for all of us is to accept life's blows as part of our journey, learn from them, and emerge stronger, wiser, and more capable. The main thing is to avoid unnecessary drama about the hard times that drags you down a path of misery.

If we look at our hard times in the rearview mirror of life, we can recognize the challenges offered opportunities to see how the difficulties contributed to who we are today.

The main lesson of past challenges is to have learned not to sit around waiting for another to hit. Inactivity usually fuels more confusion and feelings of helplessness.

Here is a simple exercise that may help.

Make a list of past awful experiences in your life.

1. Now, write how you handled each of them-for better or worse.
2. Review your list and remedies to note, you handled past problems best when you went into action.

This empowerment exercise helps you realize the importance of going into action and avoid things that promote your misery.

As the German Playwright and Poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, "Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

As I've shared with numerous people, "The good news is, we always overcame adversity and in the end, all the critical things that had to happen did happen." In other words, we always make it through the challenges.

With the current hard times, remember, you will make it through them. The more action you take the better your chance of solving the problems and the faster happiness will return to your life.

Too much media is fueling the fear and confusion of our world problems and not focusing on what people can do. I want to tell you that you will always make it! After all, you've made it through the many hard times of your life up to now have you not?

I encourage you to look at your current life and decide what you can do and get down to doing it. Anything is better than nothing. As you go into action, you will have other opportunities appear that will assist you along the way.

It is sad for the person who sits idle waiting for their world to fall. This is a total waste of time and self abuse. In the long run, none of our worlds fall and stay done. All of us may trip from time to time but we always get back up.

I would like to make three predictions for your life:

1. You will make it through these current challenges.

2. There will be other hard times to follow in your life.

3. You will make it through those challenges as well.

You may not always know the solution to your current problems but somehow and someway, the problems come and go. Save your worries and preserve these moments of life by taking action with the knowingness that you'll be alright.

I appreciate our time together in these "Five Minute Mental Breaks." Until next time, I live

In Loving Service,

Dr. Michael J. Duckett