Life is often unfair and rarely goes according to our plans. And while it’s only natural to be disappointed in these moments, it does no good to merely complain about our situation. We grieve and accept reality on its own terms – adjusting our sails accordingly as the winds of life change.
To be sure, we can look to previous generations or even our peers and see how things might have been easier for them. This is often a false comparison because we’re generally just seeing from our perspective. But, even when this is objectively true, it still doesn’t change our situation. As such, it’s a waste of energy to whine about the difficulties we must face.
Of course, there’s a place for grief. It matters when our path is thwarted and our expectations crumble. And we’re not being honest or kind to ourselves when we pretend otherwise. But the journey of grief eventually leads to acceptance. While these are not the circumstances we wanted, this is the hand we’ve been dealt. And wisdom now demands we adjust to this reality.
This is the wisdom of adjusting our sails when the wind changes. There’s no benefit of getting mad at the wind. And while we might be frustrated to have to change our plans, we’ll never get to where we’re going if we just stay frustrated.
Adjusting our sails is accepting the aspects of life that are outside of our control. This is not to play the victim and give up in despair. But rather to simply focus on the choices we can make.
Perhaps our career path, parenting journey, road to home ownership, and the like are all very different from others and how we thought it was going to be. Whatever the case, we commit to living by faith in the story given to us. And we invite much unnecessary suffering when we keep wishing for reality to be different than what it is.
In the end, many challenges in life are outside of your control, and merely complaining doesn’t change this reality. Adjust your sails and remain faithful to the choices you can make.
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