One of the best words of advice I ever received is when I was going through my divorce and I felt so defeated and not sure how I would survive, when a dear friend said to me, “Stand strong, and when you can’t stand strong, just stand.” There has yet to be a crisis or disaster in your life that you haven’t survived. I know that I have thought that there were times that I was not going to pull through, but my faith in myself and my God kept me going. Mark Twain is attributed to the quote, “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” We often times over dramatize the situation and find that we spent way more on worrying than we needed to. We are very good at making mountains out of mole hills. Time spent worrying is time lost and time that you will never get back, so why waste it?

When there are times you feel that you are not strong enough, know this, that you probably don’t feel strong because you have never dealt with a situation like this before and that you doubt your self-confidence that you have what it takes to get through it. Here is some good news, you don’t have to go it alone, you have friends, family, and co-workers that can help you. You will never experience a truly unique problem. You have no proprietary rights over problems, someone, somewhere has dealt with a similar situation at some time. And you know what else, they probably survived, just like you will.

Fear is another emotion that can make us feel less strong than we actually are. What is fear? The Google dictionary defines fear as, “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” No where in that definition do we see any indication that something will happen when we are fearful. Fear is really nothing more than worrying about something imaginary. Children fear monsters under their beds, we know that this is an unfounded fear, but try to rationalize that idea to a 4-year-old at two in the morning after a bad dream. So, if a child’s fear is irrational, what makes our fears rational? Have you ever had a fear of something and later realize you were just being irrational? Most of the time I believe you will find that is the point.

Stand Strong!