When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Life is a beautiful jigsaw puzzle that entraps a myriad of little things that make up for our state of being happy or upset with what is going on. It is not fair or possible to be all smiles all the time. Life is also about challenges, obstacles, sorrows, reasonings, failures, tears, losses, and a lot more.

It is up to each one to measure the amount of stress or effort to put into resolving and coming to terms with such situations. That is how and when one gets to be tough, strong, and a balanced human being. Only when we are struck by something out of the way will we realise that we need to find the way back home! Once in a while, when we are barraged out of the blue, with something we never expected to happen, do we learn to expect the unexpected. Only when the going gets tough will we ever know the importance of being tough. Those are the times we recognize and realise that we are stronger than we think we are.

Life throws a lot of things at us. A lot of – people, opportunities, resources, time, situations, outcomes. And depending on the choices we exercise, these opportunities, resources, situations could turn out either successfully or far from the way we ever intended them to.

Our choices design the consequences: at other times a different concoction of circumstances may create a path that we never expected – good or bad! It is when many of these things pile up, that we tend to feel that life is a trampoline, spread like the stars in space – now seen, now not: with no uniformity in the bounce yet perfect as only Nature in wild abandon can be.

The going, may I dare to say, will never get better. We must make the most of yesterday’s learning, today’s time, and tomorrow’s plans. Remember not to beat yourself up: for you did the best with what you could when you did and how you could have done it!

Failure is not the opposite side of success: instead, it is the stepping stone to find what works. And if a particular strategy didn’t, there’s a lesson learnt. In the distance you find waves rising and falling, birds soaring and swooping, tides ebbing and rising – there may be a lull for a while but the pattern resumes and never ends.

While you fix your focus ahead, a glance over your shoulder will remind you of the several tough times you have already crossed to get where you are. Keep treading along life’s journey knowing that you are fully equipped, perfectly poised, and absolutely ready to grasp your dream and make it true. Ships are not built to stay harboured in ports. Welcome the tough times with the same thrill as when you scale up the mountains: for those are the ones that will lead you to the pinnacle you’re aiming for.

Trust your struggle – keep moving and focus on the goal. Sure, life is tough – but then, so are you and soon you will see how beautifully you have grown through whatever you have gone through!

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