When the world’s working against you, it feels like nothing can ever go your way. Anything and everything that could go wrong seems like it is.
Your life has begun to echo more bad news than it does good news. You desperately want to see the light at the end of the tunnel but just can’t.
Each time you begin to make an ounce of progress, it feels like you’re just taking one step forward, followed by two steps back.
So, how do you keep going? How do you find the hope, motivation, and momentum to change your circumstances and create a better life?
Realize That Nothing Happens to You; Everything is Happening for You
“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.” -Byron Katie
Here’s the kicker: the world isn’t working against you, it’s working for you.
What you might interpret as a negative event, God, the “universe,” or your higher power actually sees as a step towards your destiny, and you have the choice to do the same.
As Ryan Holiday writes,
“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.”
Similarly, C.S. Lewis has said, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
The story of Tony Robbins’ life is a prime example. Tony grew up in a household with many internal issues. His mom was addicted to drugs and physically abusive.
She wouldn’t care for him and his siblings or even put food on the table. So, from a young age, he’d have to do it. However, he turned it into a lesson to care for people beyond himself. As Tony says,
“If my mom had been the mother I thought I wanted, I wouldn’t be as driven; I wouldn’t be as hungry. I wouldn’t have suffered, so I probably wouldn’t have cared about other people’s suffering as much as I do.”
Indeed, he changed the meaning of his suffering. He flipped it from something that was happening to him, to something that was happening for him. Rather than being a victim, he became a hero.
Of course, this isn’t to say that’s easy. However, I am showing you that your most painful and darkest experiences can become the doorway to your greatest peaks if you powerfully decide how you’re going to perceive them.
As Tony Robbins has said, “It is your decisions, not your conditions, that determine your destiny.”
This Powerful Breathing Exercise Will Clear Your Mind and Allow to Act From a Higher Level
“Breathing is free medicine, and the daily practice of breath control leads to optimal health and a longer life.” -Mark Divine
Breathing is so instinctual, basic, and essential that most people don’t even take a second to think about it. In fact, until now, you probably completely forgot about how important it was to your very existence.
However, I’m about to show you a powerful breathing, meditation, and visualization exercise that will change everything. I learned it from Mark Divine’s book, Unbeatable Mind, and it goes like this:
Imagine your skull is a fishbowl and your thoughts are the cloudy, murky water. Each deep breath in and out is your filter to remove the murky water from your mind. Visualize and sense that with every breath, the water of your mind is getting cleaner and clearer.
After ten breaths it’s mostly clean; after twenty it’s as pure as a natural spring. As you sit in this moment of clarity, you realize that what you’re witnessing is a ‘no mind’ state. In this state, your mind is completely unspoiled by thinking.
Try and maintain this state as long as you can. If you start to think again, your fishbowl will once again fill up with murky water and you can recommit to cleaning it.
The power of this basic practice is that it can easily pull you out of negative thoughts. It can save you from the torture of being stuck in your head and allow you to act from a much higher level.
As Darren Hardy says, “Left to its own devices, your mind will traffic in the negative, worrisome, and fearful all day and night.”
In Conclusion
The world is never working against you, but always working for you. If you take a moment to clear your mind and gain a higher perspective, you’ll be able to shift to a state where you can see this.
Ultimately, life is not so much about what happens to you, but rather, how you respond. As Lou Holtz has said, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond.”
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