We have a choice. Always. No matter what we might go through in life, life always gives us a choice, the opportunity to choose. And what we were, what we are, and what we will be is all a result of those choices that we made in the time we felt helpless or forced, even though, deep down we knew that we have the choice to do things some other way.
When I was young, I heard a story. There was a drunk father and he had two sons. One son became a drunk himself because he saw his father drinking all the time. The other son remained sober and pious because he saw his father drinking all the time. Both sons had the same circumstances, both saw the picture through their unique perspectives, and took their own choices and their choices defined their lives.
Imagine it like this. The same things happen to two people in the same situation. Those things make one person hate everything and they make the other person love everything more than ever before. When one person is given love, it may make them uptight, arrogant and selfish to keep that love only for themselves but at the same time that love can mold another person’s heart in a way that they would want to spread that love to everyone everywhere. We all have seen it in our lives right, in schools, at our homes, in the streets. There are people who have gone through many hardships in life. Some think that “I have faced all these hardships in life. I have the right to make these people go through them too” while others think, “I went through many hardships in my life. I will not let these people suffer from the same things that I suffered from. I will protect them.”
Life is never easy in my opinion. I like to think that way. I sometimes think:
Hardships end when the life does
But does that mean we have to keep suffering throughout life? I mean if there is a difficulty, it is only natural to complain and feel sad. But is it really? I think it depends on our perspective and our choices. Don’t get me wrong. There are times in life when no matter how strong you are, life breaks you. Some things are just too traumatic to go through them without suffering or crying. And that’s completely fine. Crying is not wrong. That is one of the most natural things. It would be very cruel to tell someone to not feel scared, or hurt ever. That will simply mean that you can’t understand them or their position and are simply pushing them away.
I think it is alright to feel any kind of emotion. But after we have felt every emotion, we have cried, felt scared, complained, wept, maybe ran away for some time as well, stalled, ignored the problem, after all that, we have to face life, right? So, when it is time to go through life, we can make the choice of going through it still complaining or trying to find the specks of ease or good fortune that lie everywhere in our path. Look at the silver lining. Sometimes, I know things can get so ugly that no one in the entire world can understand it, not me not anyone. And staying positive feels like the most unbearable thing to do. In those times, somewhere, in the deepest depths of your heart, in your subconscious, if you by choice keep that ray of HOPE lit up, that tiniest speck, by the end of the line, you will have the most wonderful smile on your face, with ample tears alright, but the loveliest smile nevertheless with a heart overflowing with peace and calm. Your heart will be inflating with happiness, and it will feel lighter than air.
We have heard it so many times, in movies, in cartoons, in children stories, in fantasy and fiction, from our parents, from our teachers and mentors, everyone seems to believe in this one thing:
“With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything”
But I don’t completely agree with everyone who says this. Let’s look at what some other people have got to say about this:
“The harder you work, the luckier you get"
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."
“It’s not always possible to do what we want to do but it’s important to believe in something before we actually do it"
See the pattern. We might not achieve everything we strive for, but we have to actively make a choice to work hard for it and believe in ourselves. And how will that help? At the end, after the dust has settledafter we have made ourselves to go through the mud crawling over thorns, after we have wept, and yelled and feared, when we are still not successful, we know that we had that speck of hope in our heart no matter how difficult things felt, no matter how much we cried and got scared, we still wanted to persevere and we did our best. At that point, our choice to work hard will give us the peace of mind we so desired and expected from success. Our hearts will be filled with calm and tranquility and will blossom and be lighter than air, not because we won, but simply because we chose to keep hoping.
