7 mental states we should endure
Avoiding difficulties help avoid risks but also limits our opportunities. Success can only come by building some tolerance for life's complexities.
From childhood, we are trained to avoid certain mental states. Yet, even the thought of them fills us with anguish.
But as it turns out, there are no rules in the world. So the path to success goes through a lot of difficulties.
Success is about facing challenges and coming out on top. It cannot happen if we keep avoiding obstacles.
Here are seven mental states that we should build a tolerance for and endure to build our character:
Fear is not an enemy. It represents incomplete knowledge.
All paths to success require us to face our fears and show courage.
Building a tolerance for fear can help us question our assumptions. It can help us venture into the unknown and experience new things.
We are wired to avoid problems. Therefore, it is always disappointing to encounter problems.
However, all the progress in the world is because problems exist. There would be no need for solution finders if there were no problems.
Building a tolerance for problems can help us see opportunities hidden in these problems to learn and grow. But it requires not getting fixated on the worst possible outcome.
Every path to success requires hard work.
The work is hard because it requires us to do something we have never done before. That means breaking old habits and acquiring new ones.
Just like breaking old muscles is painful, so is breaking all old habits. Building a tolerance for healthy pain levels can help us become flexible and adaptable.
No two humans are identical. But more importantly, no human is complete.
For as long as we have existed, we have encountered different perspectives. These different perspectives represent different ways of viewing the truth.
Building a tolerance for differences in opinions can help us analyze our perspectives critically and find ways to adapt to better solutions in new circumstances.
According to quantum mechanics, uncertainty is built in the fabric of the universe.
So is the nature of humans; we want to control every aspect of our world. But that control has always proven elusive, and for good reasons.
Building a tolerance for uncertainty helps us to take steps without complete control. It increases the speed of our actions. It also opens us to surprises, better solutions, and even miracles.
Everyone experiences boredom at some point, and everyone is annoyed by it.
As soon as we encounter boredom, we eliminate it through some known means.
But giving in to boredom opens up to the unknown. It can help us experience the beauty of ordinary things around us.
We can only focus at one action at a time.
Focussing on a single action automatically means not focusing on other things.
We are always missing out on something or the other. Building a tolerance for missing out helps us prioritize, focus, and avoid regrets.
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