One of the most important discoveries that I have made in life is to realize that life is repetitive. Life is full of cycles. Many people compare life to a roller coaster: the life goes up and down. It continues in such fashion until we die.
Why is it such an important realization? Mainly, it is a source of strength. It gives us certainty in our ever changing lives. Whenever we are experiencing an upswing in our lives we know that a downswing is coming sometime soon and vice versa. It is a bit similar to economy.
We can never expect the economy to continue growing indefinitely. Likewise, we can never expect the economy to continue contracting indefinitely. Those are the facts. If we know those facts we can adjust our behavior and our expectations accordingly. Actually, we should be never caught off guard if the things start going down the hill all of the sudden because life repeats itself.
How exactly does that provide with strength in our lives? Consider this. When you are living an abundant life, you should know that it will not be like this forever, therefore you should appreciate what you have right now. More importantly, when things are not going the way you want them to, just have faith and realize that this is just a phase and the things will get better – it is just a matter of time.
If there was one thing that you were to take away from this article is this: it’s just a matter of time. Especially remember this when times get rough. It’s just a matter of time until your life improves.
How do I use that in my own personal life? Here is how: right now, many things in my life are not going the way I want: I do not have the income that I want, I do not live where I want, I am doing the things that I like. But one day I told myself: this is just a matter of time before the things get better.
Once I realized that, things got much easier to handle. I was able to look at my situation much clearer, I started learning the things that I should be learning from this tough situation. I gained clarity and strength. It really helped me. I hope that it might help others struggling with things in life as well.
It does not mean avoiding the present and living in the future. When I say: “It’s only a matter of time” I only mean, that you should not put yourself down when they things are not going your away and appreciate the good things when do happen; that is all.
I guess it has something to do with impermanent nature of life. Once you realize that, you stop taking things as seriously in your life and start savoring every single experience in your life! It teaches you just to trust yourself and essentially live life in a more playful manner.
So remember: It’s just a matter of time!
8 Comments
It reminds me of Jim Rohn’s book “Seasons of Life,” where he compares tough times with a season of winter, which soon will be changed by spring … then summer, fall and once again winter. So in summer think “Winter” and during your life’s winter think “Summer.”
Preparing for tough times in advance is also a good idea…
Anyway, to quote W. Churchill himself: “If you are going through hell, keep going.”
Adomas:
I like the Churchill quote the best, I have not really thought of it, but it fits perfectly what I was trying to say. It seems that this idea of cycles is pretty common not only human life, but in the universe overall.
It’s just matter of realizing it and using it to your own benefit to live the life to the fullest every single moment!
Thanks for the visit and a great comment!
Happy Holidays!
Best,
Tomas
That is a good way of summing things up I have to say! Life is short and you really do have to make the most out of it. You can be miserable if things are not going your way but what is the point? Some people just stay sad all the time when things don’t go their way but you really should just enjoy it even if you don’t have much money or the job you want! Have a good Xmas :)
Hey Niall:
Great to see you back here again :)
You are so right: we should enjoy and learn from every single experience in our lives! We are experiencing what we are experiencing for a reason and we should understand that reason!
Being sad and feeling sorry for yourself is not going to change the situation, it is only going to make it worse and create a downward going spiral which might eventually end up in a depression.
Instead let us smile no matter what and just remember that it is only a matter of time before things change :)
Have a good Xmas as well, Niall!
Tomas
You can’t have green grass without rain.
Likewise, you can’t have happiness without sadness.
How else do you know what happy is, if you don’t have sad to compare it to?
The down moments make you savor and appreciate the up.
And the up will come. It always does. Nothing stays the same. Like you said: It’s just a matter of time.
Hey Oleg:
Exactly :)
Life is simple, we just make it more complicated than it really is!
Best,
Tomas
This is a GREAT post and I actually wrote about this topic through a different lens which will be posted on my blog within the next couple of months (www.mybrandentity.com). Here is a brief synopsis:
I am going to write about Breaking the Cycle of Life, which happens to be a topic that I am incredibly passionate about. As a result of my analysis of human psychology, I have come to the conclusion that the cycles our ancestors created generations ago have the capacity to negatively affect the quality of our lives today.
Some of you might believe that bad habits, addictions, and choices we make are part of our genetics, or in other words, something that we are born with because it is ingrained in our DNA. But I am here to tell you that this is not always the case, and in the examples that I provided above, is never the root of the problem. This happens to be our epigenetics, or in other words, our learned behaviors.
In order to emphasize my point, we are often handed a cycle from generations earlier and it is our CHOICE as to whether or not we will break this cycle and create our own!!!!!
Great job TOMAS!!!!!
Hey Jared:
I love that you provided with a different angle on the same issue. It is true that because of the learned behaviors negative habits can be passed down from generation to generation without us even realizing.
Very powerful! I am really looking forward to reading your article once it comes out. Once again, I think awareness is the key to changing any behavior or anything within our lives.
Keep me updated, Jared!
Best,
Tomas