Why I say “Embrace your struggle” because most people want to avoid the word “struggle.” In today’s world where comfort has become a luxury, and generation of quick wins sometimes resembles struggle with failure. The hero’s, role models, and successful people that we admire today, at some point, somewhere they also had their struggle time, but nobody want’s to hear that side of story.
Struggles are not the obstacles to your success, the real truth is, they are part of the journey to success, and server as a raw material in path to success. When you embrace your struggle, you shift your mindset, and pass the resistance that was stopping you to grow. And this mindset shift is the foundation of long lasting performance and productivity.
Why Struggle Is Not the Enemy
Do not view struggle as a sign of failure – struggle is a phase, not an end. Things could be hard, but you have to keep going. When we are struggling, we feel discomfort, lost, and sometimes end of the road. But if you read Psychology and read of many of self-help or productivity gurus, Discomfort is a signal of growth, it’s not a signal to quit.
When a muscle grows, it tears slightly before rebuilding stronger. The same method applies to your mental and emotional strength. You train your muscles with different kinds of weight trainings, same way struggle makes you mentally strong and resilient, the harder you push, the stronger you become, it applies in both scenarios. You can think of Struggle as a feedback that you are stretching your limits, but for that you have to embrace your struggle.
Whenever we set any goal, it could be something like learning new language, mastering any new skill, or even if you want to start a business, it will not be smooth, there will be some level of friction, and that’s the way to transformation. As author Ryan Holiday puts it, “The obstacle is the way.”
Unnoticed Benefits of Struggle
If you learn to embrace your struggle, and will look for the benefits it brings to the table, then you will find it offers more than frustration. The person who struggled most in the life, will have powerful qualities that will separate him/her from the rest. Below are some:
1. Resilience
Resilience is powerful quality, and is not built during easy days. When thing’s do not go as planned, and you are seeing up and downs, and instead of quitting, and seeing that as end, you decide to continue and learn to adapt, you starts building this powerful quality without even knowing.
2. Clarity
Challenges often reveal what truly matters to you. Whenever you are challenged in the life time, and fight to that challenge, you make your way to overcome that challenge, by focusing on what is important in that situation. This approach makes a room in your subconscious, because every struggling and challenging time you follow the approach, it leads the way to more clarity in any future low times.
3. Self-Discipline
We have listened and read many time, “Growth Demands consistency” in many other variations of sentences. For consistency, you need to be disciplined first. Without Self-Discipline, it will be very hard to be consistent and to grow. Every time you embrace difficult task instead of avoiding the task, it boosts your willpower, and brings you step close to the consistency. Motivation fades in hard times, so willpower pushes to keep performing what you are doing and stay disciplined. Eventually, you will end up being a most disciplined person than you ever before your struggle times.
4. Confidence
Whenever you accomplished something, you feel confident, agree ? So imagine, when you survive through your hard times, and did not quit, and succeed through your struggle, it becomes evident that you can handle more than you thought. That’s real confidence, that you earned, not imagined. Confidence always comes from outcomes, achievements, or sometimes even failures, but winning through your struggle time, is the natural boost is confidence.
These are not the only benefits of struggle, but these are most important and impactful for anybody’s success journey.
Why Avoiding Struggle Hurts Performance
Whenever your feel uncomfortable, challenged, we always feel safe by avoiding the task or situation, but it comes with silent cost, you becomes stagnant and adopt to stagnation. Choosing comfort every time, and playing safe is like throwing your chance of growth.
So let’s put this way:
Without feedback, you can not improve.
Staying in comfort zone, you will stop adapting.
Avoiding failures, putting end to your learning.
So in short, avoiding struggle limits your potential in long term.
How to Embrace Struggle and Make a Way to Growth
Below are 5 steps that will briefly tell how to make your way to growth by embracing your struggle.
1. Shift Your Perspective
In every challenge, ask yourself: what this is trying to teach me ? what can I do differently to make this challenge easy ? Stop seeing struggle as a problem, instead of see it as a opportunity to growth.
2. Stop Looking for Perfection
You don’t need to be right every time, you just need to show up, that’s important. You have to be there every time regardless of the win or loose. Progress is the key, than perfection. Progress comes from showing up ever time and perfection will eventually follow someday.
3. Break Big Goals into Smaller Challenges
Always break goals into smaller one’s, into more manageable parts. Be a habitual of smaller-wins, it will boost your willpower, and you will get into momentum.
4. Reflect Instead of Regret
When you hit end of the road, analyze it. Reflection answers many unanswered questions, and if we go as per Philosophy, Reflection is the way to wisdom. Journaling or self-auditing are very good methods of Reflection.
You can read more on How to Do a Personal Self Audit
5. Struggle Journal
Document the tough moments and what you learned from them. This will become as an evidence of your success, and will keep you motivated every time you are going out of track.
Embrace Your Struggle
So at the end, with few words, Struggle doesn’t block your path, when you embrace it, you evolve throght it.
Small mindset shift is what separates the average from the exceptions.
Leave your thoughts about this topic and share your struggle stroy.