Saturday, November 8, 2008

We can choose to be miserable, or we can choose to be strong.

The work is the same.

A friend at Weight Watchers shared this quote today (unknown as to who to attribute it to...) And it hits home. Especially for me this week.

So things aren't going our way. Or things get hard. We all face trials and tribulations every day. Some are relatively minor. Some are major, life altering events. Sometimes we just get one thing after another dumped on us. If we look around our lives, it probably wouldn't take most of us that long to find reasons to be miserable. Shut ourselves off and just wallow in self pity.

But why? It really does take the same amount of effort to be miserable as it does to be strong through adversity. It's a choice we have to make though. Do you want to be the ever suffering victim? I guess some people do. I know a few. And I feel bad to see them go through the world so closed off. I just want to go shake them, then hug them. Because you know when we choose to be miserable, we are usually miserable alone. Even when surrounded by lots of people. We shut down and pull into ourselves. Or people get put off by the 'debbie downer' stuff and they pull away.

Part of being strong is reaching out. It takes an incredible amount of strength to reach out to another person and say "hey, I need your support." It's damn hard to admit we need something from another person in a time when we're feeling particularly vulnerable. And I can't speak for anybody else, but whenever somebody has asked me to help them, I have bent over backwards to do it. Because I know how hard it is to ask.

It takes work to maintain a constant state of misery. It really does. So why not take that energy and put it towards being strong. Embracing your flaws and challenges and shortcomings and finding strength in adversity.

We can CHOOSE to be miserable.

Or, we can CHOOSE to be strong.

What will you choose?

2 comments:

  1. Hey i just found your blog and really loved this post. I am a big believer in this way of thinking. I hope you are having a great week!
    Brian
    Cincinnati, Ohio USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are so right. I will choose to be strong!

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