If you’ve started to question why life is so hard, it’s likely that something is missing in your life. Ask yourself, are you living according to a life purpose, or have you started to drift? The journey to change your life won’t necessarily be an easy one, but it should ultimately be enjoyable. You should enjoy learning new things about yourself, your life goals, and what motivates you. If you’re wondering, “Will life get easier? Will all this become easier?” then this article is for you.
Why Is Life So Hard? A Motivational Article
If you’ve begun to ponder why life is so challenging, it’s likely something is missing in your life. Ask yourself, are you living with a purpose, or have you started to drift?
The definition of a “life purpose” can vary for everyone, but you can still know whether you are actively pursuing that purpose or have let it slide. Interestingly, you’ll encounter challenges in either scenario. The only difference will be how you feel at the end of the day.
While questioning why life is so hard, remember that there is always something that makes everything valuable and meaningful. As safe and comfortable as living haphazardly may seem, you risk not fulfilling your potential and not reaching the life that awaits you. You’ll always wonder: Are there other aspects to life that I’m not experiencing? Am I missing out on something?
The journey to change your life won’t necessarily be easy, but it should ultimately be enjoyable. You should take pleasure in discovering new things about yourself, your life goals, and what motivates you. If you’re wondering, “Will life get easier? Will all this become easier?” then this article is for you.
This article is intended to help you acquire skills to cope with life’s challenges and to enrich your life. The information provided here is not medical advice. Consult with your doctor for medical advice. If you are in an emergency or crisis situation, or if you have plans of suicide, call emergency services (e.g., 911) or go to a hospital emergency room.
Surviving or Thriving?
Every day, we have two choices. We can listen to the voice that speaks of fear and self-doubt, or we can heed the quieter voice that talks about confidence and moving forward with a purpose.
The calm and quiet voice of self-confidence pushes us towards the life we dream of. If you find yourself asking, “Why is life so hard?” you’re likely facing difficulties in fulfilling your life’s purpose. Perhaps you are struggling to overcome some disadvantages of the environment you were born into or the one you find yourself in now. Maybe you’ve set a goal to lose weight and are finding it hard to achieve it. Whatever the reason, you currently face a challenge that seems insurmountable.
You may be trying to make the best decisions with what life has given you. Yet, this does not change the fact: you are in this world for more than just surviving.
If you want to make your life easier, you must stop postponing your dreams. You can approach them by taking small steps every day. For example, you could dedicate the first 90 minutes of your day for 90 days to achieve your dreams. Try this, and you’ll not only start a strong habit but also work hard during the most productive 135 hours of your day on your dreams. Don’t forget to celebrate your small progressions. This way, you gain momentum and create an enjoyable process for yourself.
Nobody likes making mistakes or failing while advancing towards their goals. However, remember that making mistakes is very normal when trying new things. In fact, the mistakes you make are a significant indicator that you are pursuing your purpose and have embarked on a journey by listening to that confident voice. Continue learning from your mistakes and let them transform you into a more experienced and wiser person on your journey to becoming who you want to be.
Coping with Emotions
If true power lies in knowledge, then knowing what steps to take should make life easier, right? However, when we look at real life, we see that this is not the case. A glance around us shows that most people know what they need to do, whether it’s quitting smoking, eating healthily, or studying regularly.
This raises the question: If we have a plan and know what to do, why is life still so hard?
Many students know that dedicating certain hours of the day to study specific subjects will bring them success. Couples in a marriage know that if they listen before speaking and try to understand each other’s feelings, their communication and relationship will improve. Those who start a diet for weight loss know that following a regular program recommended by a dietitian will help them lose weight. Whether it’s professional, academic, or personal goals, we know the steps needed for success.
The disconnect between knowing and doing often arises because we fail to account for emotions. For a student, continuing becomes difficult when they struggle to understand the day’s topic and start feeling bad about themselves. If we feel that the other person isn’t doing anything despite our efforts, effectively listening and trying to understand their emotions becomes challenging. If we are going through a rough emotional period, focusing on our diet becomes harder.
Research shows that by using the “if… then…” method to prepare yourself in advance, you can decrease the chances of succumbing to emotions. In this system, you anticipate the times when you might encounter a feeling or challenge and prepare a scenario in advance. This increases your chances of following the pre-determined scenario when you face that situation.
For example, if you are on a diet and there’s a high chance you’ll go out to eat with friends who have unhealthy eating patterns, you can plan to order a salad and yogurt. While studying, “If I start to struggle, I will congratulate myself on how far I’ve come. I will leave that part to ask my friends/teachers the next day and continue my program from where I left off.” When communicating with your spouse, “If I try to empathize, really listen, and try to understand their feelings and I don’t get the response I want initially, then I will continue this for a month and try for a month until I get a positive response. I will note down the positive feedback and monitor the progress in our relationship.”
If you have underlying irrational core beliefs like “I am a failure, weak, worthless, unlovable,” and the emotions they trigger, consider seeking help to work through these issues.
Overloading
If you’re asking why life is so hard, one reason could be that you are overexerting yourself. This might seem obvious, but let’s delve a bit deeper.
Life is a sum of your experiences. Some of these experiences are more positive than others. If the challenging experiences in your life far exceed your positive ones, it’s time to reevaluate whether you’re setting destructive goals for yourself.
To illustrate setting unrealistic goals, consider someone who sets a goal to lose 25 kilograms in a month. This person might not realize how unrealistic this goal is. If they knew that the recommended rate of weight loss is 1-2 kilograms per week, they would understand that aiming to lose approximately 1 kilogram per day is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy.
Moreover, when you set unrealistic goals, not achieving them can leave you feeling disheartened.
Sometimes we allocate an unrealistic timeframe to a realistic goal. Sometimes you might need to realize that you need to give yourself a bit more time. You might be surprised by how much your stress and anxiety levels decrease when you give yourself more time.
Looking in the Wrong Places
When we constantly focus on what’s wrong in life, life can indeed feel incredibly challenging. Believe it or not, we can find many things going wrong when we look for them, but we must also recognize the many things that are going right.
We may not have a choice in every aspect of our lives, but we do have the choice of what to focus on. We can choose the information we feed our minds. If we condition our minds to focus on the negative, and continually gather information from negative sources, seeing opportunities becomes nearly impossible. Consider someone who only watches the news. We all know that the news is full of content that can trigger feelings of fear, anger, and disappointment. Our world view and mindset can be shaped accordingly, risking becoming overly pessimistic. The same can be true for choosing music that might lower your mood.
Constantly interacting with people who complain about everything can similarly turn our outlook more negative. Being around people who incessantly complain about their families, relationships, or jobs can lead us to dwell on similar issues in our own lives.
To change a negative mindset, we need to do two things. First, minimize the intake of negative information. You can reduce watching the news and try to spend less time with pessimistic people. If these negative influences are close to you, like family members, it can be challenging, but if these are the reasons you’re questioning why life is so hard, you might need to reassess some relationships.
Second, create a “positivity journal.” You don’t have to write in it every day, but make sure to read what’s written often. Start each day by reading about all the good, orderly, and grateful aspects noted in your journal. This will help you appreciate the pleasant aspects of your life, allowing you to notice the beauties of life amidst daily struggles. You might not hear about the good and positive things about yourself and life from the news, social media, or other
In Conclusion…
The answer to why life is hard can vary from person to person. Seeing how far you’ve come in your own transformation and change will comfort you when you look back.
If things are not happening as fast as you’d like, don’t lose heart. Instead, realize that you are taking one more step on the path to your goal every day. If you are better today than you were yesterday, eventually the place you reach and the person you become will please you.