Dealing with Emotional Hardship
“An easy life doesn’t teach us anything. In the end it’s learning that matters---what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown.” ~Richard Bach
Think of the major shifts in your life when you’ve had the most personal growth. What preceded the change? Was it a tough period? What is a painful period from a challenging external event that forever changed you?
My own path to personal development came when I was dealing with the hardship and emotional struggles resulting from a relationship breakup. It was a painful and emotional period, and all I wanted was for it to end.
In trying to overcome and deal with the pain, I dove into books on emotional intelligence and learned as much as I could about our emotions—why we feel what we do, why we experience emotional pain—and how to overcome them. Once I overcame the challenge and found peace again, not only had I conquered the problem, I now also had a much better understanding of myself and discovered the magic of personal development books.
My new love for learning about the self and various personal growth tools eventually lead me to a path that included leaving my job as an engineer and into creating my happiness blog.
So in hindsight, the painful breakup from many years ago was a gift in disguise. And because of it, my life was changed forever—for the better. Instead of looking at hardship as mountains on our backs, consider viewing it as a challenge to climb on top. For it is the challenges that truly teach us about the sweetness of life.
--Tina Su
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