Everyone’s life is a series of ups and downs, of valleys and mountain tops. We often think that if we do all the right things that all will go well for us, but the truth is that bad things do happen to good people. The world doesn’t owe us a living and even when we feel that we deserve a good life, we are sometimes thrown a curve ball.

The reality is that life is not fair, and it is not always consistent. Life’s lessons are often hard because they are there to teach us, and to give us a means to understand the difference between happiness and sadness. Without the two extremes, we wouldn’t have any conception of what is good and what is bad. Imagine if your life was always happy and a bed or roses, with no contrast. Firstly, you wouldn’t be able to understand and experience your full range of emotions, and secondly, life would become totally bland and uninteresting. You need the lows to appreciate the highs.

When you came into this world it was a struggle. You had to be forced down your mothers’ birth canal and be expelled out into the world. Your first emotion was pain and that is one of the reasons babies cry at birth, besides, of cause taking their first breath. As you grew you learnt to cry when hungry or needing changing. Right from the start life is teaching you good and bad experiences.

Nobody owes you a living, everyone is struggling themselves, with the same problems you have. The difference between those who survive and prosper, and those who don’t, is very often just the way they handle bad situations when they arise. If you are real with yourself and accept that problems will come your way, you are then prepared and ready for them, and therefore able to deal with them more effectively. If you don’t accept that life will be unfair to you, then you will moan and groan your way through life, blaming others for your misfortune. The result of this is that you will make no attempt to solve each problem, feeling that it is out of your control, and you will be unable to move on and achieve success.

We need a certain amount of hardship to develop our characters and to make us become more aware of the suffering in the world, so that when other people suffer, we can comfort and encourage them. With every hardship we grow in our capacity to turn challenges into opportunities.

The author Tim Hansel said “Pain is inevitable but misery is optional”. Even the most successful people will encounter painful periods in their life, but they learn to overcome them or accept them, working around them instead of fighting them head on. When you accept the reality that you life isn’t fair, then you are more ready to deal with the ups and downs, learn from them, and come through on the other side a better person.

When bad things happen we need to look for the silver lining and for constructive ways to deal with each situation. Some things can’t be fixed, and in those cases you must just learn to manage the problem, find alternative solutions, and make the best of challenges as they occur.

Even though in life you may face hardships, on balance, most of the time you can be happy, as long as you appreciate the good times, store up the reserves to cope with the bad times, knowing that the good times will come around again. In the bible it tells us “this too shall pass”, as eventually most problems do get sorted. We need to just keep hope as we pass through the seemingly unfair storms of life.

Written by Christine Sherborne - For more articles like this visit her web site http://www.colourstory.com

A Free Gift For You - Some of Life's greatest lessons I have learned
Wouldn't it be great if we knew everything when we start out in life? Lessons are often painfully learned and often costly. My hope is that you will read through the lessons that myself and many others have learned from, avoiding the same mistakes in your own life. If you take these seventy lessons on board they will help make your life run more smoothly, giving you a happy and successful life you deserve. http://colourstory.com/Free_Copy_Life_Lessons.php

Author's Bio: 

Christine, is a successful businesswoman with more than twenty five years experience, having owned and run businesses both in New Zealand and the UK, and now in Australia.

She was awarded ‘Auckland Business Woman of the Year’, in 1996, for the remarkable and rapid growth, and success of her packaging company.

Christine originally trained in Art and Design, and later achieved a Diploma in Sales and Marketing. She has used her natural business talents and creative flair to develop innovative and successful business ventures as diverse as packaging, importing, computer sales and manufacturing.

Christine has travelled widely, sourcing product, suppliers, customers and manufacturers for her businesses, giving her a natural empathy, enabling her to negotiate and communicate with a diverse range of nationalities and peoples with confidence.

Being a naturally positive person, she has long been interested in self-help and motivation, and she is widely read in these subjects, using the knowledge gained to help to progress her various business interests.

In her personal life she has experienced major life traumas which have taught her many valuable lessons. Those experiences and how she coped with them, overcame them and restored joy and happiness into her own life, prompted her to write a series of inspirational self-help CDs to help others who may be going through similar traumas.