Struggle is an integral part of life. There are those who would like to ignore or deny this fact. By doing so, they are only bound to struggle even more than necessary. There are also those who recognize this fact and use it as a reason to hate life. They spend most of their time being miserable and making everyone around them miserable as well. Then, there are those beautiful souls who accept struggle as an integral part of life and go through life carrying their burden without complaining. However, as proud and stoic as they are in their struggle, most of them still see it as an unavoidable evil.
The fourth response that I will try to propose here is nothing revolutionary. Certainly not my invention. But it seems that this response, although the most empowering one, is the most difficult, or the least natural, for people to adopt. I am talking about looking at life’s struggle as something that is not an exclusively negative phenomenon but something that can actually help you become a greater human being. Or, if the idea of being "great" is too vague and susceptible to philosophical debating, let’s say that struggle can help you become more than who and what you are right now. No matter how satisfied you are with yourself right now, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to imagine being something more.
Without further ado, here are four ways struggle makes you greater or helps you become more:
Struggle Strengthens You
Struggle, although it has the potential to break you, also has the potential to strengthen you. When you face a challenge head-on, you are forced to discover untapped reservoirs of strength within you that you cannot discover in your everyday life. When you navigate those challenges and overcome them, you develop a sense of strength and fortitude, knowing you survived something that initially seemed like it could crush you. Struggle forces you to confront your limitations and push past them, igniting your personal growth.
How do you become strong? By having a reason to be strong. By having no other choice but to be strong. How do you feel after surviving and overcoming something that threatened to destroy you? Stronger than ever.
Struggle Catalyzes Self-Discovery
Struggle is one of your best teachers. In the midst of struggle, you learn far more about yourself than in moments of comfort and security. That’s because, in struggle, we are compelled to delve deep within ourselves and confront our true nature. It’s when your world is shaken to its very core that you realize what really matters to you. Struggle acts as a catalyst for self-discovery as it forces us to examine our beliefs, values, and motivations, as well as our strengths and weaknesses. Whatever your struggle may be, you are not just struggling with something else; you are also struggling with yourself. You are wrestling with parts of yourself that are preventing you from thriving and are even making survival more difficult. Embrace struggle as an opportunity to learn who you are, who you could be, and who you don’t want to be.
Struggle Deepens Gratitude
Besides being a teacher that facilitates your self-discovery, struggle is a teacher of gratitude. Struggle has the power to deepen our appreciation for the simple joys of life. When we endure hardships and overcome obstacles, we gain a newfound gratitude for the ordinary moments that we may have taken for granted before. Struggle provides contrast, allowing us to see the beauty and significance in the seemingly mundane aspects of our lives. The one who has survived life's storm has learned to appreciate the sun in a way that those standing on the safe shore still can't. Embrace struggle as a revealer of life's true blessings.
Struggle Inspires Authenticity
Struggle strips away things that don’t matter. It encourages you to embrace your authentic self. In the midst of struggle, you realize that you don’t care about the opinions of others. You realize that you don’t want to follow the path someone else has chosen for you. In the midst of struggle, you understand that the difficulties and troubles of human life are worth it when you are living a meaningful and authentic life. You also realize that living a life that doesn’t even feel like it’s yours weakens you and leaves you susceptible to giving up in the face of even the slightest struggle. After overcoming a struggle, you feel confident in expressing who you truly are. After all, it was your true self that overcame the struggle. Why would you hide it from the world?
If you are still having trouble seeing any value in your current struggle, know that you are not alone. What you are experiencing right now is something that every single human being before you also had to go through in their own way. At this moment, you are carrying a torch that had to be carried by everyone and will be carried by those who come after us. A torch of the unbreakable human spirit. Spirit that grows through struggle and suffering. One of those special humans who turned the fire of this torch into a raging flame had a message for you:
"The discipline of suffering, of great suffering – do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of humanity so far?" - Friedrich Nietzsche
Lastly, I am aware that there are certain struggles in this life where my suggestion that there is some value in them sounds like an insult. I can assure you, and, if you are my regular reader, you should already be aware of it, that I have the utmost compassion for those going through struggles that seem too great and painful to be valuable. But if I am to fulfill my mission, there is a risk I must take. I must risk insulting some of you, as the worst thing that can happen is that you stop reading, if that means empowering someone and convincing them that they will come out of their struggle a wiser, stronger, greater, and better human being.
Thank you for reading.
Free Resources:
My free ebook: The Lost Art of Reading
Paid Resources:
The Art of Showing Up: A Clear and Practical Method for Mastering Consistency
The Gold Pill: Timeless Ideas for a Life Worth Living
If you like my Existential Espresso writing, there is zero-cost support in the form of subscribing, liking this post, commenting if you have any thoughts on it, and of course sharing this with anyone who would find it interesting.
Or you can consider becoming a paid supporter of Existential Espresso for 5$ per month. By doing this you would be helping me to keep investing time into researching and writing all the content on the daily basis.
What you get by becoming a paid supporter is access to the members-only essays (such as “Why Having a Price on My Head Didn’t Upset Me”or “Why Living With a Bulletproof Vest is The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me”), as well as an opportunity to recommend topics for future essays.
However, even taking the time out of your day to read what I have to share with you means more to me than you can imagine. Thank you.
Struggle is the catalyst that allows us to find ourselves 🙌🏽 Great post
Thank you so much, as always, this is such a knock knock on the heart 💖