Dealing With Reality
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” Epictetus
Dealing with reality is often hard. Why? Because we resist it. Resisting reality can make our life worse. There are times when we thought that we are accepting reality but what we are doing is quite the opposite. Reality exists whether we like it or not. We cannot change what is going to happen us. Our only choice is how we react to certain events.
In dealing with life problems, we often accuse other people and nature of our misery. We just love to do it. I think it’s part of our human nature. What we don’t realize is for every action we take there’s this space between thoughts and action.
Let me use a daily scenario as an example. When we are stuck in traffic and maybe running late we choose to blame people. We blame them for not having discipline, improper attitude against fellow human beings, etc. Other people are worse, by the way, they keep blaming the government for events like this.
The reality in that scenario is we know that traffic sucks, so why are going to blame other people for events we cannot control? We do this because we:
- lack perspective - lack acceptance of ourselves - keep resisting reality - don’t accept struggles
In the scenario that I gave having perspective is very important. Other people are going to their jobs as well to earn money for their necessities. Perspective is essential in life. It’s disappointing that society these days don’t have this. Always remember that there are people who are experiencing worse than we do.
Accepting ourselves is important when dealing with reality. Having knowledge of the Self allows us to know our strengths and weaknesses. We know what we need to do to improve ourselves. We see what opportunities we will take.
Self-acceptance is hard. But that’s what reality is all about. Self-acceptance can lead you to your purpose. The secret to self-acceptance? Mindset. It starts with your state of mind.
Resisting reality and not accepting our struggles is the opposite of dealing with reality. Life is all about efforts. That is why we need to face every obstacle that reality is giving us. Life is all about lessons. We learn from it. Without problems, life isn’t complete. That is the reality.
For us to accomplish our goals and own version of success, we must face and deal with reality. Face it. Learn from it. Don’t run away from it.
*My book Roots: Success and Greatness Starts Within You is now available on paperback and eBook.
