I believe that we all have gifts, talents and ability on the inside of every one of us.
When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl
I’ve forever been inspired by how (some) people can go through so much and yet be able to rise above and live well. I call it living well despite…
For me it seems to boil down to something beyond circumstance and external situations.
Because, as we all know, there are so many people who have gone through terrible situations and yet manage to be upbeat and strong, and push forward in their lives; and yet others sink into disappointment and despair.
It’s natural to go one way or the other. It was Viktor Frankl’s concept of “man’s inner strength raising him above his outward fate” that I kept and will always keep me going, and that definitely helped me stay afloat and cope well.
What makes some become better and some bitter? Psychologist and researchers in the field of happiness and well-being have proven that circumstance is the smallest contributor to our happiness.
Our genes make up 50 percent, and the most powerful and influential part, our behaviour, our intentional activities, make up 40 percent of our happiness.
This can really be the make-or-break part. This means there’s so much we can do to give ourselves that meaningful and joyful life we all naturally want; or I should say, that happiness we are all after.
And there’s a lot we can do to increase our life satisfaction, above and beyond our circumstances, negative as they may be.
So yes, we can rise above our difficult situations and we can become better, by first recognising and acknowledging that we are not victims but rather active players and creators of our playing field, and then by reconstructing our views about your circumstances.
