Most people dream about an easy life. A life where you have everything— money, time, love and happiness. A life where you don't have to worry about work, economy and future.
What if you were born a millionaire?
Imagine a life where you don't have to worry about money ever. You don't have to go to college or develop any skills. You don't need to work to pay your bills.
Your biggest problem is that your friends are vacationing in more exotic places than you are.
Sounds like a dream life. Who wouldn’t want to live like that?
But what if all the money was gone because of a bad financial investment? Or a change in government policy?
What if you don't know how to earn and you can't stop spending? Eventually, the money will run out!
A person who has never worked hard, never solved a difficult problem, never faced tough financial times, how would he respond to sudden tough times?
It will break that person to the point that getting back on his feet will feel impossible.
Now, imagine someone born in extreme poverty. Because of the chaos around that person, his self-esteem will be extremely low. Poverty and social troubles will break that person's spirit. He will be so stuck that getting out of that life will feel impossible.
If you have everything, you won't learn the value of hard work. You won't learn the value of saving, investing and building skills.
If you have nothing, it will break you. Most people won't even try something good in their life.
The strongest people have faced difficult times and learned to get out of that position.
It builds your confidence. You have experienced the worst times and become wiser. Now, you won't repeat those mistakes.
For example, if someone is born poor and figures out a way to make a good life, he would do anything to never get back into that position again.
People who were born poor and made out of that life will keep building their skills, investing, and learning new things.
You must face hard circumstances and endure tough times to build your character.
Making progress in life is one of the best feelings. It gives you immense happiness.
I lived an easy life till 22, then made good money and lived extremely comfortably.
It spoiled me. Now, at 30, I am learning the toughest life lessons. I don’t wish that I should not have gone through tough times, only that I should have learned these valuable lessons at an early age.
For example, Killing your self-doubt.
When you try to do something good, like building your skills, starting a side hustle, or building a business, everything is rosy in the beginning.
As days go by, and there is no way to measure your efforts or how much you have improved, self-doubt starts building up. There is no surety of a good future.
If you let these emotions control your thoughts, every day will get worse. Within days, you will start thinking about quitting. Why do work when you are going to fail? Why struggle more? Why not quit now?
Don’t let your self-doubt build up.
When you go through hard times, it fills your mind with self-doubt.
I have struggled with self-doubt for a big part of my life. And it snowballed in the last 4-5 years. When you are filled with self-doubt, everything feels difficult.
There is a simple solution— highjack your emotions.
Do something daily that will make you more confident. Work on something daily that will make you feel you are improving. Don’t let your hopes get weak. Instead, make them stronger every day.
For example, when I started writing, I felt I could do this daily and that too easily. But being consistent in something you are not good at is quite difficult.
However, every time I publish a post, it increases my confidence.
I have seen this work in different parts of my life.
For example, if you work 8 hours daily and nothing seems to work, work for 10 hours from now. You will feel a sense of accomplishment when you push yourself and do a bit more than your daily routine. You will feel a sense of control over your actions and thoughts.
It’s just a matter of pushing yourself. Within a few days, you will start building back your confidence. Then, there will be days when you will overachieve; you will do things you thought were impossible for you.
Just focus on today. Did you do enough today that you can sleep peacefully? If yes, then you will be okay. If not, then get back up and start working!