Can There Be Growth Without Struggle?

Many of the difficult situations that we go through in life are going to help us grow. Whenever we are challenged in new ways it can help us to think in a new way, to develop better skills in an area that we might want, or to reap some other sort of benefit from having gone through the struggle. Whether it's trying to lose weight, save money, be kinder to other people, have more patience, much of the growth that we might want to see is only going to come if we are placed under pressure.

The new reality that we might want to see can only be achieved if we go through change. We need to change our eating habits if we want to lose weight, or our spending habits to save money, change the way that we talk to people, or change the thoughts that we meditate on whenever we are placed in a situation that prompts impatience etc. And when we start doing something that goes against the norm of whatever we are used to, it can easily prompt discomfort in our life.

This discomfort can keep us from moving forward and embracing the struggle, instead prompting us to turn back and remain at the comfortable stage that we are at.

Struggle isn't fun, but if we remind ourselves that the difficult journey might bring with it some valuable results, then we might be more likely to go along with it. Delaying gratification so that we can make those changes with our spending or eating, or with the words that we say etc, is going to put us under pressure and that trial brings with it the opportunity for us to grow.

We might see a lot of things in our life that we want to change when we focus on what we aren't happy about, but we can also choose to focus on the progress that we have made no matter how small that may be.

We can celebrate the little changes that have been made or we can get discouraged by how far we have yet to go.

A number of things that we might want to change are only able to grow under pressure, that pressure brings discomfort and that alone is enough to prompt many to jump off the path. But if we stick with that struggle, we can and often will see growth as a result. If we keep choosing pleasure every day in areas that we would like to see growth, and never make that sacrifice to embrace the trial and go through the pressure and challenge, then we can easily stunt our growth as a result.

We are all engaged in our own individual process of change and it's up to us in many ways how slow or fast that process is going to be.

We want to be changed but we don't want the discomfort that goes along with it. Sooner or later we find out that the struggle is required for the transformation that we desire. At first, taking those steps to make and go through that change can be very frightening for many, but before long it can become refreshing. That is because sameness can easily start to bore us and a lot of frustration can be built over struggling with things that we would like to see changed.

That change shouldn't be expected however, without us having to give up anything in-return.

Pics:
Pixabay