Even In The Midst Of Uncertainty, Look For Hope

Sooner or later, life will throw you a curveball, and you may have to deal with some pretty unthinkable, life-changing experiences. And when you look back to the time before everything changed, your life probably won’t have looked perfect, but it will have been relatively normal. There will always be that sense of stability and the feeling that even when the bad things happen, you will overcome them and life will return to its relative normality.

Then that day comes when the really bad things start to happen one after the other and it becomes evident that life will never return to the usual sense of normal. This will be the new normal, and it will take a very different mindset to move forward with your life.

No one ever wants to face a crisis. No one ever wishes to receive a life-changing diagnosis, to experience the loss of a loved one, or to lose an income. No one ever wishes to receive any painful, devastating news. But here’s a fact: There will come a day when you are on the receiving end of bad news.

The days following that fateful day, when your life feels like it’s falling apart, will be the defining moments for you. That loss or that diagnosis will drive you down a path of either hope or hopelessness and that will dictate your life in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

When that life-altering news presents itself, the journey from start to finish will be ever-so-difficult. Initially, life does not just change, it literally stops. Everything halts—how could it not? The normal, mundane routine of life is over. Plans for family lunches, playing in the garden, nights out with friends, or a day at the beach will not happen, at least not in the foreseeable future. There can be no dreaming and planning for the future when the future seems so uncertain.

The initial feelings of devastation, hurt, anger, and hopelessness are then followed by the infinitely difficult decision to either sink or swim. There is a choice to be made about whether to look toward the light instead of sitting stagnant in the dark. That all-important strength within must be summoned to embrace the difficulties and take steps to overcome them, to never stop planning for the future, to keep hope alive, to believe in faith and miracles and dreams. For there is a strength that comes from simply just BELIEVING.

It really isn’t an easy thing to simply believe in the process. Receiving bad news somehow robs you of envisioning a happy future with carefree days. The immediate goal is to survive the crisis—survival is more important than faith and happiness and thoughts of a bright future.

I have actually come to the conclusion that your outlook and attitude is the key to coming out on the other side stronger and more resilient. As difficult as it may be, even in the midst of uncertainty, it is important to try and envision a future with all its possibilities, as this will go a long way in keeping hope and positivity alive. This is exactly what will drive you not just to survive but to live.

Whether you are able to see it or not, a life-changing journey always has a silver lining because you learn how to fight and conquer; you learn how to love and accept love and support from the unlikeliest of places. Above all, you learn the power of appreciation. Experiencing the unexpected allows you to actually realize what’s worth stressing over and what’s not worth worrying about. It is a truly priceless realization.

At the end of it all, you will never be the same person as you were before, but you will be the person that you were destined to become through the choices that you make when your world is at its darkest hour. Choose wisely when that hour comes, for it will be the choice between living a life of light or a life of darkness.