How To Overcome Unpleasant Experiences

What’s the most undesirable and unpleasant experience of your life right now?

Is it mounting debts that’s threatening to bury you in a nervous breakdown?
Is it the death of a loved one?
Is it a chronic illness?
Is it a painful divorce?
Or is it a sense of stagnation in your life as a whole?

I wrote this post out of a firm conviction that you can overcome any unpleasant experiences in your life. In this post, I’ll offer simple and practical ways to overcome unpleasant experiences, rejoice in difficult times, and achieve your dreams in spite of temporary setbacks.

Life is full of troubles, and none of us is smart enough to completely avoid the unpleasant experiences of life. Every now and then, you’ll run into one unpleasant experience or the other, often unexpectedly. I personally have had more than my own share of unpleasant experiences, from the torturing betrayal of trust, to a near fatal car accident; from a chronic and painful illness, to a persistent sense of stagnation in life and business. Severally, I’ve come to the point where I felt like quitting.

And that is the greatest temptation in unpleasant experiences – that inner pressure to abandon your dreams. I understand that feeling, and I know how tough it can be to not yield to it. But, I also understand that the point at which you seriously want to quit usually coincides with the point of breakthrough! Your miracle, victory, or success, is actually closest at the point you want to give up.

Are you feeling like abandoning your dreams, projects, and enterprise at this time? My challenge to you is 2-fold:

#1. Resolve to put in your best efforts for another 12 months!

The mental shift to put in your best efforts for another 12 months will,

• Free you from that 21st century demon called ‘haste.’
• Give you a long-term perspective of your situation and challenges.
• Ultimately enable you remain in position for the inevitable favorable turn in the tides which will carry you to new and greater heights.

Please, don’t be under any illusions with regards to the pressure to quit; it’s a very capricious devil that will resort to any rationalizations in order to distract you or force you into a cowardly retreat. Some of the most common of these rationalizations include:

“You are not cut out for this”
“You don’t have the talent for this.”
“People will laugh at you if you fail.”
“You are not in the right business, or profession.”
“The situation is hopeless.”

The real challenge is that all of these suggestions are quite logical and sensible. Yet, don’t forget that illusions normally masquerade as realities. The suggestions that attempt to pressure you to quit are so deceptively real as to be hard to ignore. Yet, and here’s my point based on personal experiences and years of pastoral counseling, the pressure to quit heightens as you get closer to victory and breakthrough.

This is why I advise you to put in your best efforts for another 12 months.

Don’t shut down that blog yet.
Don’t quit that enterprise yet.
Don’t give up your expectations for a miracle yet.
Don’t run out of your country yet.
Don’t abandon that dream yet.

Something different and positive is about to break forth upon you, and it will unfold sooner than you expected. New realities will soon emerge that will flood your soul with pleasure and release new and desirable experiences for you.

In the meantime, shift your mental gear into a firm resolve to hold on for another 12 months. Then put in your best efforts into what you are doing and resolve to do so for at least another 12 months, regardless of your results.

#2. Chose to smile, not to sulk

Any of us can feel great and give thanks to God in times when everything is proceeding according to expectations. But it is even more important to give thanks when everything appears to be going against us.

It is a truly great man or woman who can choose to smile and maintain a positive attitude (of gratitude, and thanksgiving to God) in the midst of disappointments, failures, and unpleasant experiences. What you do amidst unpleasant experiences, the way you handle your adversities, has a tremendous impact on how things eventually turn out for you.

During unpleasant experiences, don’t shrink back. Don’t get bitter. Do not lose your enthusiasm. Do not allow the unpleasant experiences bury you. Don’t be scared away from your dreams. Put a smile on your face and resolve to press forward till the very end. It is this kind of positive attitude that produces great faith, great strength, and greatness in you.

Please, note that you don’t have to ‘feel’ like smiling or rejoicing before you do so. You don’t have to ‘feel’ grateful before you can give thanks or express gratitude. It’s not a feeling, it’s a choice. It’s not an emotion, it’s an act of your will. You choose, and resolve to smile, to express gratitude, regardless of how you feel.

From a black coal to a priceless diamond

The only difference between a piece of black coal and a priceless diamond is the amount of pressure that it has endured. When you resolve to put in your best efforts, and smile in the midst of the unpleasant experiences of life, it’s like going from a piece of coal to a priceless diamond.

Those unpleasant experiences are going to give way to new growth, new potential, new talent, new friendship, new opportunities, new vision.

Unpleasant experiences are the tests and sieves that life uses to separate the weak from the strong, in order to decide who will go forward to the next level. This is why it’s been said that quitters never win, and winners never quit.

Resolve to put in your best efforts for at least another 12 months, put a smile on your face and begin to express unwavering gratitude to God for present blessings.

If you choose to do these amidst your unpleasant experiences, and regardless of how you feel, you’ll begin to experience more strength and victory in your life.

Tags: dreams, positive attitude