Life is an uncertain roller coaster. You can choose to embrace it and enjoy the ride, joyfully learning from your experiences along the way; or you can choose to rebel against all of life’s challenges, resenting every moment of your journey. The latter robs you of any growth or development, while the former gives you the opportunity to learn from those challenges and become a better person for having experienced them.
While “better” may be relative, one thing is certain – “better” means improved. No matter where you find yourself, there is always room for improvement. Even a monk strives daily to improve himself, striving always to become a better person.
The Challenges in life are a given, and they can be used to your advantage. Each one is an opportunity for personal growth and self-improvement. Ultimately, the goal is to use what you learn as you grow to become the best version of yourself.
6 Life Challenges You Need to Grow Through:
Here are 6 common challenges in life you must overcome on your road to becoming a better person:
1. Loss:
Whether you lose your job, an opportunity, or a relationship – loss is an inevitable part of life.
Regardless of how it happens, a loss is one of life’s biggest challenges. It can feel abrupt and disruptive. However, loss allows you to reflect on what is truly important to keep moving forward. Losing something that you had or wanted can be a welcome wake-up call. Loss forces you to ask yourself, “What about what I lost was valuable to me?” and “What am I willing to do to get what I was Choosing to examine your loss through the lens of these questions causes you to assess the true value of what you lost, as well as why you value it. Having a clear understanding of what you value and why you value it is key to becoming a better person because it gives your words & actions integrity.
2. Failure:
There is not a single person alive who hasn’t experienced failure. To grow, you must fail. Failure offers a natural checkpoint on your journey, one that allows you to evaluate your recent behavioral choices so that you can make improvements. When you fail, you get the chance to review your decisions and behaviors, like an athlete reviews the taped footage between games.
3. Setbacks:
They have many names: missteps, monkey wrenches, unforeseen circumstances. But setbacks are ever present on our journey to becoming a better person.
4. Moral Compass:
Distinguishing right from wrong for yourself is an ever present life challenge. You may agree with one ideology today and another tomorrow. Changing your mind is your right, and deciding where you stand is your responsibility. The two go hand in hand.
5. Mastering Your Mind:
Your mind can be a formidable obstacle to becoming a better person. It can pipe up with all kinds of negative commentary when things are not going well and can have the power to derail you with doubt and fear – if you let it. Mastering your mind is one of the greatest life challenges of all.
6. Overcoming Your Story:
Everyone was once a child. There are things you experienced that were outside of your control, regardless of their severity those experiences stay with you. Those experiences become part of your story. Overcoming the story you tell yourself about your own experience can be quite the life challenge.I can grew up in an out of apartments, worried about money, with feelings of unworthiness because of what I saw around me. I thought struggling was normal and survival was a default mode of being – it became part of my story. Yet as an adult, I had to make a choice, either I allow the past experiences shape my current narrative OR I focus on the circumstances of the present as a reflection of my current reality. Fortunately, you are now prepared to overcome them with grace and strategy. As you continue along your journey to becoming a better person, remember to let go of the things you can’t control in exchange for being present in the moment, create space for healthy self-reflection, give yourself permission to reexamine your values and beliefs, embrace the resilience that comes from encountering setbacks, allow your failures to be the source of compassionate resonance, and let loss teach you about what you value.
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