Why Is Life So Hard?
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (79103)
United States
February 22, 2024 9:23am CST
Very simply put, because it is supposed to be. As the old saying goes, "The struggle is real." The harder it is, the more challenging it is. The more motivated we are supposed to become to find a better path and reduce the struggle. The hard part is what gives us a reason to seek out better things and more opportunities.
We're not supposed to settle. We are not supposed to be satisfied.
If we go into a job that doesn't pay much, we're supposed to be motivated to find something that pays more. We're supposed to think our way out of a situation.
If I go into fast food or retail as an occupation, it makes no sense to complain about the pay. It makes no sense to cry foul to the rest of the world. It makes more sense to have known before you entered those fields, "This is what this field offers."
I think all too often people think just because they do anything, it should automatically grant some sort of payoff. And it's not like this is resigned to just jobs and money. It applies to everything we do in life.
Getting a new skill might be hard, but there's a reason it is. The opportunities will only be afforded to those who put in the effort. Just as it should be. As another old saying goes, "If everything were easy, everyone would be doing it."
Life is supposed to be hard because it is what makes people achieve things. On large scale as well as on small scale. It gives people a reason to do successful things.
"I don't like my situation, so what can I do to change it?"
Those who seek out the answer get farther ahead in life. They accomplish more. And they also offer more value in the world to the rest of us. It provides us with people who can fix our cars or install a toilet. People who build businesses that offer us jobs and opportunities to invest in them. People who invent things we need to make our lives better, more productive, and easier.
It's not supposed to be easy. Life. It's supposed to be hard. Nothing is truly unfair in the world except what we hold ourselves back from accomplishing and missing the very real opportunities right before our eyes.
Who gets to struggle less? The ones who understand this.
9 people like this
7 responses
@porwest (79103)
• United States
22 Feb
The only sad thing about people who inherit money is that they never really ever get to keep it. They don't have the same habits and the basic foundations about money that those who earned it first had. So, those people tend to just blow through it. They have their fun for a while. But they don't know how to make it last.
3 people like this
@2ndchances24 (5925)
• Cloverdale, Indiana
24 Feb
@porwest That's about how my husband was when he would
get a advance pymt on the road, he would spend it like drinking
water the more he got the more he spent on stupid stuff, it
drove me crazy, I kept trying to tell him, "SAVE it, or send
it home & I'll SAVE it" but it went in 1 ear & out the other.
@LindaOHio (161271)
• United States
23 Feb
Exactly. And life does suck by the way! Have a good weekend.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (161271)
• United States
26 Feb
@porwest My current situation just sucks. Take my word for it.
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (34649)
•
24 Feb
I think it's the human condition to complain about things. Whether it be your job, the pay, the bills, your health, and your life. Oh, to be young again when all I had to complain about was going to school.
Of course, I get your message about life and it's so true.
1 person likes this
@BearArtistLady (5642)
• United States
22 Feb
Have you ever installed a toilet???? My mom got the wild hair that she wanted low flow toilets in the house, and guess who got to install them? Yep, you got it, her daughter-ME! I can scratch that off my "bucket list"!!! Starting with they are heavy suckers and go on from there. She decided that after my father had passed away, and I am so glad I never decided to become a plumber. I also did a lot of fix it work on her car too. Thanks to mom my bucket list was shortened a LOT!!!
I learned long ago NOT to hold myself back from learning or trying to do something. The only thing holding you back is yourself. I so love your discussion because it expresses my outlook on life so precisely. I don't envy people that have lots of money and "things" that have gotten them easily. They don't enjoy the gratification of working hard to achieve the goal of earning what they have.
People are in awe when they hear that I taught myself how to sew, how to make jointed teddy bears, how to make the joints for the teddy bears. My FAVORITE thing to do is ask someone in a professional position if they would like a joint. The look on their face is priceless when they finally manage to sputter "No thank you, I'm good". I will reply "I know you're good, but have a joint anyhow" and will walk over to them and give them the two discs with a hole through the center, held together with a cotter pin with a washer on one end and another on the end of the cotter pin that is twisted to hold the 'joint' together. The person will look at it and look at me and finally ask what it is, and I tell them, "A JOINT".
I usually have one of my teddy bears with me for them and I give them the bear and the joint as a gift. I'll go back for another appointment and the bear will be sitting on their desk, with the joint, and I'll hear how much fun they have with the "Wanna joint" trick.
Life is what you make it. You can either complain about how awful it is and how hard and challenging in it or you can accept that there will always be challenges and rise up and accept the challenges and once those are met go on to the next one. One thing that I will always look at when I start to want to complain about one of my challenges (like my constant chronic pain from my on the job injuries) is look around and see the people that are in worse pain and worse condition than I am. It makes me thankful for who I am and even though I am in severe pain, I still can function. It's like when I was a teenager and had to wear glasses and the boys would tease me about being "4 eyes", then I met a teenage girl that was blind. We became great friends and when these same boys would tease her I would step up and sternly state that they should be grateful, that they could be wearing glasses or be blind.
While life may be rough and you might have the best of everything, never quit striving to improve not only your life, but yourself. Just as you have finished school, there is no reason to quit learning. It may be a struggle, but the struggle only makes us stronger and a better more understanding and loving person in the long run.
Thank you so much for the discussion!!! It makes everything a bit clearer. Although, there is one problem on my plate that I still need to deal with, and it is a struggle that when it is solved will make things so much easier and my life a lot less stressful. But the discussion makes all the rest of my life so much clearer. Thank you and bless you!!!
The orange and cream colored bear is one of my designs and creations. It's 24 inches tall and 5 way jointed (the head, both arms and both legs) and made out of mohair.
I learned long ago NOT to hold myself back from learning or trying to do something. The only thing holding you back is yourself. I so love your discussion because it expresses my outlook on life so precisely. I don't envy people that have lots of money and "things" that have gotten them easily. They don't enjoy the gratification of working hard to achieve the goal of earning what they have.
People are in awe when they hear that I taught myself how to sew, how to make jointed teddy bears, how to make the joints for the teddy bears. My FAVORITE thing to do is ask someone in a professional position if they would like a joint. The look on their face is priceless when they finally manage to sputter "No thank you, I'm good". I will reply "I know you're good, but have a joint anyhow" and will walk over to them and give them the two discs with a hole through the center, held together with a cotter pin with a washer on one end and another on the end of the cotter pin that is twisted to hold the 'joint' together. The person will look at it and look at me and finally ask what it is, and I tell them, "A JOINT".
I usually have one of my teddy bears with me for them and I give them the bear and the joint as a gift. I'll go back for another appointment and the bear will be sitting on their desk, with the joint, and I'll hear how much fun they have with the "Wanna joint" trick.
Life is what you make it. You can either complain about how awful it is and how hard and challenging in it or you can accept that there will always be challenges and rise up and accept the challenges and once those are met go on to the next one. One thing that I will always look at when I start to want to complain about one of my challenges (like my constant chronic pain from my on the job injuries) is look around and see the people that are in worse pain and worse condition than I am. It makes me thankful for who I am and even though I am in severe pain, I still can function. It's like when I was a teenager and had to wear glasses and the boys would tease me about being "4 eyes", then I met a teenage girl that was blind. We became great friends and when these same boys would tease her I would step up and sternly state that they should be grateful, that they could be wearing glasses or be blind.
While life may be rough and you might have the best of everything, never quit striving to improve not only your life, but yourself. Just as you have finished school, there is no reason to quit learning. It may be a struggle, but the struggle only makes us stronger and a better more understanding and loving person in the long run.
Thank you so much for the discussion!!! It makes everything a bit clearer. Although, there is one problem on my plate that I still need to deal with, and it is a struggle that when it is solved will make things so much easier and my life a lot less stressful. But the discussion makes all the rest of my life so much clearer. Thank you and bless you!!!
The orange and cream colored bear is one of my designs and creations. It's 24 inches tall and 5 way jointed (the head, both arms and both legs) and made out of mohair.1 person likes this
@2ndchances24 (5925)
• Cloverdale, Indiana
24 Feb
When I married my husband the 1st thing he told me is
I don't need you to get a job I'll support what we need
so that was nice to hear but that wasn't what I wanted
I wanted to work but being he didn't I just found my own
thing to do to make what $ I could to make $ while he
was on the road, which was cleaning house's 10$ a hr
3 hrs per house, which wasn't much but it helped.
That way I could do that while he was on the road &
could adjust my days & hrs while he was home where
he never knew I was working while he was away, it
worked out pretty good & that all stopped so I had
to find me something else to do to keep me busy.
So I started raising rabbits, as a hobby that went
into a full 24-7 (under that table business) & did it
for like 20 yrs where I was the main rabbit breeder
of our area, that every 1 came to buy rabbits to eat
or as pets or to raise themselves so it worked out
pretty good till we had enough of fla & moved to Indiana.
@JoseBravo (13)
•
22 Feb
I feel like this is essentially true for most people. I don't think this is 100% true in all situations. I don't think everyone understands that they have to put in the effort to get futher. Some struggle is pretty much essential in most things.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21249)
• Australia
23 Feb
Of course, "hard" is relative, even as Einstein said that time was relative.
Sometimes, time seems to go slow, at other times, fast.
At times, our life might seem hard then, at other times, more easy.
The thing is though, if we are loving life, and what we do, the word "hard" never comes into our mind, because the love powers us to do whatever we need to be doing, so hard is relative.
