Self reflection produces a whole lot of those “hard to swallow pills.”
Today it taught me that I’m ungrateful.
I come home from a job that not only gives me a paycheck, but respect, responsibility, and fulfillment. I’m able to eat food and enjoy the shelter of my OWN HOME and talk to and develop relationships with cool and interesting people ON THE INTERNET.
And still I bitch and complain about my life like it’s hard.
My life is awesome.
Now I don’t want to turn this post into something that makes you feel like you have to discredit the hardships that you face on a regular basis. Chances are, you do have things in your life that are hard.
What I do want you to do is to reflect on both sides of the spectrum.
Reflect on the hardships because these are important. These are going to show you that you are living life. If everything went the way we wanted it to, life would be dull and without growth. We need hardships to progress so it’s important that we give them the respect and reflection that they deserve. To find the ways that we can resolve them and come out of the fire stronger than we went in.
Reflect on the positives. What’s going well for you? What’s making you happy? What do you have to be thankful for? As I’ve talked about in the past, we can so easily lose sight of all the “good” things in life and only focus on the bad (because those can be improved).
Reflection on both the positives and the negatives cultivates the highest growth/fulfillment surface area. It forces you to come to terms with the responsibilities you must fulfill, and acknowledge all the blessings you’ve been handed, all in the swift, fluid motion of taking your next step towards growth.
Ben Greenman 