The gold will become pure only by burning in the fire. It’s the same with a person, when going through a difficult time, becomes mature and acquires wisdom. Every failure is a valuable lesson, every mistake can be a new chance or new beginning. Best way to deal with difficulties is to accept them as they are. Do not run from them or try to deny their existence. Only by dealing with crises can we overcome obstacles and turn out to be a winner.
“If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going” – This statement is considered to be spoken by Winston Churchill shortly after he took the job of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At that time United Kingdom was on it’s knees and it seemed like Nazi Germany was in full contorol of all over Europe.
For people of Great Britain it looked like there was no hope or chances to resist their mighty opponent. The British looked like they were going to be finished. They were all alone against the vicious and victorious Nazi enemy. Their biggest ally, France, was badly defeated. And people of Great Britain were constantly bombed, every day, every night, 24 hours a day and 7 days in a week.
The Germans had absolute control of all of Europe and It seemed impossible that Britain could survive in these conditions.
Now, this part is the tricky one “it seemed impossible”. If you really believe that it’s impossible then you won’t do anything about it. It’s the faith that gives power to our moves. If you have faith and hope, you’ll do something about certain issues. But if there’s no hope or faith left, you’ll give up. Actually it’s the attitude that matters the most. And our attitude comes mostly from our belief and faith.
There is no universal or ultimate solution for every possible situation. But there is an ultimate attitude that can bring us a solution. That’s to embrace all hardships, troubles, crises and problems. And then start to solve all these problems one by one. If we want to sound more lyrical we’ll say “just keep going through hell”.
And maybe we can simply say that’s the whole point of this statement. But the truth can be way more complex. The struggle in life doesn’t end, ever. As long as you breathe, you’ll be going through hell. Why? Maybe because life is hell, life is a journey and when you are on a journey you never know when things will go wrong. And when they do, you never know when they will go from bad to worse.
Now, if you acknowledge yourself this truth, and if you truly believe in it, you can’t be surprised in any circumstances. You already accepted the fact that life at any point can be transformed into hell, so when it really happens you don’t care too much as it’s something common. As always it’s much easier to just say than done.
But my point of view suggests that going through hell simply means to keep on living. Keep on hoping, believing, working, trying, learning, changing and much, much more. There is no turning point in life or moment in life when you will be able to say “OK, now I’m done. Everything is fine, and everything will stay that way for as long as I live”. That doesn’t exist. Maybe in some fairy tales about Cinderella, and they happily lived ever after. But we all know that’s crap, some romantic illusion about perfect life on our imperfected planet Earth.
Life is full of burdens, difficulties, pain, hardship, and temptation, so it can’t be paradise. Maybe it’s not literally hell, but by logic and our common sense and knowledge, it’s much closer to the definition of hell than paradise. And so just keep on going through hell!
