What is one life lesson that has shaped your life and what advice can you give others from it?
If there is anything that I've learned, especially from the last year of my life, it is that there are never bad days, just hard days.
Let me explain the differences that I see:
Bad adj: Of poor quality, inferior or defective
Hard adj: solid, firm, and resistant to pressure; not easily broken, bent, or pierced.
2. requiring a great deal of endurance or effort
A bad day would mean that everything went wrong. It was completely horrid and there was no way that anything was even remotely positive about it because it was poor.
A hard day would mean that effort was needed in order to get through. That things occurred requiring you to work through them, and be strong. Also, twisting the definition a tad, you were required to be resistant to pressure as much as possible.
The deciding factor on how you handle your days is your attitude. Crazy things happen, it's life. However, your attitude dictates how you let everything affect you. Attitude is what aids your judgement. It's a given that if you are not in a positive state of mind, you are going to have a difficult time with the tough things that come up. You'll get worn down and distraught by the detours and dead ends that you weren't expecting. However, if you have that positive light in a difficult situation during your day, you'll be better able to look at it head on for what it is, take it piece by piece and deal with it to the best of your ability. By the end of the night, when you're staring up at your ceiling before your eyes close, you'll be able to say that the difficult parts didn't define your day, but instead shaped it, and you.
Going back to the definitions I listed, I'd rather have a day that put effort into, than day that I deemed poor quality due to my unwillingness to see past the negative aspects and abandon the idea of a positive attitude.
Each day is a gift and though it might be hard, declaring it a "bad day" counts it out. Instead by saying it was simply hard means you are able look back and say you're stronger because of it, and learned something as you chose to have a positive outlook.
Hard days come, but they are what you make them. Choosing to make them a learning experience and an opportunity to better yourself is probably the best you can do when faced with a hard day. In the end, they still have the potential to be good when looking at them in that state of mind. That's the point of life anyways, to learn grow day by day.
Now there is never a day that I label "bad." I've limited myself to using only hard since my days are never bad, because...
1. there was always something that happened that made me smile, even if just for a second2. I always learn something new
3. I'm stronger each day because of the trials that I face.
I love my life, even with the hard days, the difficult trials and obvious flaws. Life wouldn't be the same, or as enjoyable if you didn't have those aspects to make you appreciate the things that truly are wonderful, beautiful, and full of so much (insert lovable life qualities here).
But that's just my life lesson. I only hope that your days are good, and if not good only hard, never any that you consider bad.
