Unfortunately, life isn’t always very pleasant, and doesn’t always go the way you would like it to – sometimes not even a little bit close the way you would like it to.
When things are looking bleak, such as if you have to contact estate sales companies to dispose of all your assets, for example, it can be exceptionally difficult to maintain any degree of optimism, or to figure out how you could ever pull yourself back to a positive situation in life.
Here are a few things to remember when you seem to have hit rock bottom – to give you a sense of perspective, and to remind you of the importance of hope and resilience.
As long as you are alive, there is still potential, and opportunities to be explored
As long as you live, your existence is still characterised, in large part, by potential. There are always things that could happen to you, or that you could do, that remain outside of your current, limited field of view.
No one individual has ever explored and tapped into all the possibilities that life has to offer – and it’s important to remember that history is full of examples of people who have truly lost everything, such as in war, who have nonetheless managed to open doors that they once could never have imagined would be there — and to step out of the darkness, and into the light once more.
The world is very big, and full of many mysteries. Have some faith that there are possibilities out there for you that are mysterious today, but that might reveal themselves further down the line.
At any moment in your life, you have the power to work on self-reinvention
Every year, huge numbers of people from around the world will prepare for the annual New Year’s countdown, with a list of resolutions that they have drawn up in a moment of optimism.
There’s great power and meaning to the act of setting New Year’s resolutions; and the New Year certainly is a good symbolic moment to turn over a new leaf. By no means, though, is the New Year he only time when you can turn over a new leaf.
In your life, you always have the power to work on self-reinvention – even if only in small ways at a time. But it’s important to realise and remember that you don’t have to be who you were yesterday, today. You can work on dissolving bad habits and establishing positive ones. You can retrain for a different job. You can change the course of your destiny.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
A famous quote attributed to the Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, says “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Of course, that saying is true. Even the most ambitious journeys, and the most tremendous accomplishments, have to begin with a single, small step in the right direction – followed, then, by step, after step, after step.
When you are at rock bottom, small actions may seem futile and meaningless. But they are not. Anything you can do to begin pushing things in a better direction will benefit you directly, will begin to open unseen doors for you, and will start to generate the kind of momentum that can carry you forward. So, do something small but positive today, and don’t lose hope.
