Taking Life Head On! (the Hal Elrod Story)

“Though we can all choose to be victims of our circumstances, this choice will only provide us with temporary comfort when others are around to feel sorry for us. In the scheme of life, we must decide upon reasons for life’s events that empower us to become better than we are now.”

The circumstances that life throws at us are inevitable. No matter how hard we try, there will always be events that can demotivate us from living lives to the fullest. While we can’t control our circumstances, we can choose how we respond to them. Do we want to be a victim? Or a survivor who will strive to keep going? 

Being a victim means living in constant misery, pain, and hopelessness. It means just seeing the negative in every situation. Contrastingly, being a survivor means living a happier and healthier life. It will allow us to be grateful and pain-free while we seek to progress. 

Being a survivor is what we all desire - no one wants to be in the dark. However, most people find it difficult to move forward as it takes time to reach this state. ​This difficulty is part of the process. Giving ourselves room and time to heal is the best way to deal with it. We could also ask for support from our friends by simply expressing our feelings. This will make it easier for us to overcome the problem.

In our journey to healing, we can also regularly ask ourselves why the situation happened and what we can learn from it. These questions will help us find our purpose. More than that, this can also motivate us more to just keep going both for ourselves and others.

Ultimately, have faith that no matter how difficult the situation is, you will always overcome it. In time, you will be entirely healed and be ready to embrace life again. Just keep going. You can do it.

“I learned from experience that rejection is part of life. It is not inherently good or bad. It is just what it is. However, because rejection is inevitable, we must learn to overcome it.”

Rejection is a part of life. Even if you did your best, there would be a time that you would still be rejected. This is similar to a failure. Regardless of who you are or what you are capable of, you will still experience failure along the way. Both rejection and failure are inevitable - instead of trying to avoid it, learn to overcome it. 

Overcoming both rejection and failure is not easy. It takes time and practice to learn not to let it discourage us from constantly trying until we succeed. Therefore, we need to take those little steps to help us cope with them. This can be done by simply reminding ourselves that rejection is a part of life. These little reminders can motivate us to keep pursuing our goals and aspirations in life. 

While dealing with failure, one helpful way is to accept and acknowledge them first. Then, take time to contemplate and find the lessons behind it. We can also evaluate how not to let the same kind of failure happen to us again. Through this, we will realize that failure is not a bad thing. It’s just a way for us to be molded into stronger and better people.

"I have since learned that acceptance was and is the key to real, and lasting happiness and fulfillment."

Most of us used to worry over countless situations, doubts, and circumstances. We often let these consume us, hoping to resolve every problem that arises. However, when we deeply think about it, we will realize that many of them are out of our hands. So no matter what we do, we can’t seem to find the right solution to those uncontrollable problems. This is exactly what stops us from progressing in life. 

If you want to live your best life, you need to learn how to accept the uncontrollable and focus only on what you can control. To do this, you need to evaluate the situation first. Then, ask yourself if you can change anything about that problem. If you can’t change it, better not worry too much about it and just move forward. Then, work only on the things you can control. By doing so, you will have a more peaceful and clear mind. It will also make you happier and more satisfied in life.

"However, I don’t believe that purpose is necessarily pre-determined. I believe it is our responsibility to define our purpose in life.”

Many people used to believe that their purpose was something that they would find after a life-changing experience. They believe it is already rooted in them, and they only need to wait for the right time to discover it.  While it is true that purpose comes from experience, it is, however, not pre-defined.

As humans, it is our responsibility to determine our purpose in life. In the same way, we owe it to ourselves to be selfless. We need to understand that we are not living in this world just for ourselves. So, it is important to pause momentarily and ask how we could add value to others.

We may not realize it, but the answers to this simple question are already within us.  If we let ourselves reflect on turning our experiences into something more purposeful, we also allow ourselves to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life. These things don’t have to be big. It can be simply helping a friend every step of their way through success or by just being kind to others. After all, we are all living in different environments. What’s easy for us may be difficult for others.  Soon we will realize that every act of kindness contributes to the global healing process.

“What If I told you that there is no way to happiness; happiness is the way. It is to be chosen before your day begins and not dependent on what happens.”

Each of us is striving to be happy. We enter relationships, engage in our passions, and so on, hoping to be happy about these things. What we didn’t know is that happiness is not something that needs to be chased, nor is it found. Rather, it is to be chosen.

Happiness is a choice we can all make. No matter what circumstances we may face, we can all choose to be happy about it. It is not easy for most, but that doesn’t mean it’s also impossible.

In fully attaining happiness, we need first to change our negative thoughts into something positive. Let yourself pause for a moment and evaluate what kinds of thoughts are flowing in your mind.  Are you filled with overwhelming and depressing thoughts? Or thoughts about how grateful and loved you are as a person? If you are filled with negative thoughts, it is also definitely the reason why you feel negative emotions. In this case, you need to develop new empowering habits that will change your negative thoughts into positive ones. 

One best empowering habit that can make you happy every day is the habit of gratitude. Every morning and night, remind yourself of the things that you are grateful for. This will help you realize how much you have to be grateful for and how little you have to be sad about.

Most importantly, always strive to live each day as if your life relies on it.  After all, we only live once. So why not make the most out of it? Allow yourself to pursue your greatest passions and the things that make you happy. Be present, alive, and smile. Remember that there is nothing more beautiful than the life you chose for yourself.

“In order to create the life of your dreams, you must have a clear vision of what the life of your dreams looks like. Know this: anything you can dream, you can achieve, and there is no such thing as a dream that is too big.”

We all have dreams we are working to achieve in the future. For some, they are scared they couldn’t make it. While others are confident they can achieve it. Regardless of what we feel, we need to have faith that we can achieve our dreams no matter how big they seem.

To achieve the life of our dreams, it is important that we have a clear vision of what it looks like first. It includes identifying who we want to become, what we want to have, and our desired passions and purpose in life. This will give us a sense of direction  ​that will help us identify what steps we need to take when creating our dream life. 

The next step after clearly identifying our vision is to track our progress. Every day, we need to be mindful of who we are becoming and check whether it is aligned with our goals. It is also important to break and replace the negative habits preventing us from reaching our dreams. 

Then, we need to take action. Each day, we should strive to create consistent progress towards our dream life. Part of taking action is surrounding ourselves with people who are also committed to success. This will motivate us more to keep working,  believing, and working hard until we succeed. In time, we will eventually arrive at the destination we envisioned.