If we’re lucky enough to age, we will at some point face challenges so great it will draw us to our knees. If we’re lucky.
The unlucky ones don’t make it that far.
When we are younger, we are so mired in privilege that we are angry at life when we’re thrown death, disease, rejection and loss.
Yet, reality sinks in as we age. The older we get, the more we realize that our plight on this earth is precarious. At some point, we all die.
The way to get through the shock and anger of being confronted with life altering change is to use it. Let me count the ways.
- Use it to help others. There have been many people who used their disabilities, chronic illness, and grief as a way to help others. This desire became a nonprofit organization or small business. If you can find a way to support those who are hurting the way that you did, you will find purpose in your pain. So beneficial is this option, that it makes you wonder if there was reason for the difficulty in the first place.
- Write about it. If you’re able to encapsulate your experience in an essay, memoir or nonfiction book, you may have a story worth sharing with the world. Your experience while unique has echoes of other people’s pain that may help heal the world.
- Use it as a reminder that life is short. Sometimes getting fired or divorced or suffering some type of loss (the pandemic!) wakes us up to all the ways we were settling for the non-negotiables in our lives. This heartbreak maybe your wake up call that you were heading in the wrong direction. How do you want to live the rest of your life? Use it as motivation to fuel your greatest desires. If you could live anyway you want to live, how would you do it? Having a ticking clock is good motivation to get off the couch and start creating the life you want to live.
- Be more compassionate to others. The best thing about challenging situations is that it breaks our hearts open. Sadly many times we have to suffer in order to grow compassion. But it’s also the beauty in heartbreak. Once we’ve felt the pain of suffering, we’re more understanding of others who are going through their own.
- If you’re ready to use your recent challenge as fuel for something greater, I would love to set up a time to talk with you. I help moms to find their purpose and would love to help you. Send me an email below if you have any questions or want to schedule a time to meet online.
