It's A Wave, Ride It.

I like to think life is one funny pot of beans; one minute you're at rock bottom, the next you're flying high. The more you learn to ride the wave, the better you become. Everything in life has its ups and downs; it's as constant as they come. There's nothing that can be done to change that fact. It's why we've got on/off, up/down, left/right, front/back... the wave is everywhere and in everything we do.

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Now without the understanding of this fact, there's the tendency to overreact at various points in life. The majority of people want the good things of life at all times but this is practically impossible! There'll always be those downtimes no matter how little and far between they are.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

I believe the tough are able to keep going because they realized that things won't always remain tough. At some point the going will become easy, it's a wave. The tough time will bid its time and the next phase will come in.

Tough times don't last but tough people do.

You can't ride the wave with a weak mentality; you've got to be tough and fit both physically and mentally. It's your tough mental strength that'll keep you going when others might have pulled out and given up. It's that tough mental strength that'll make you understand that though the wave is threatening to drown you, you'll still make it out on top.

Now the thing is this, you don't have to get it right the first time. Like everything else, it takes time and you should try as much as possible to not worry about this (getting it right) but instead enjoy the moment and learn from the previous try.

I want to believe that part of realizing that life's a wave is the fact that you allow things to play out without much fret on your side. When things are going fine and smooth, you enjoy it and try to prepare for the next phase. When they turn around, you do the exact same thing.

Now you must be wondering how it's possible to "enjoy" a rough patch or bad phase in life. I wonder too.

Maybe for one, you don't cry yourself to sleep every night or blame yourself or anyone else for your current predicament. Maybe you could spend your time looking forward to the next phase of your life and not see this bad one as the last phase of your life. Maybe that's how you "enjoy" the bad phase.

In these extremes (highs and lows), it's always almost impossible to document and share your experiences at the moment they're happening. There's just no time to catch your breath. It's these moments that get stored up as memories; memories that we go on to never forget. They make up the stories we tell later on in life. They're the battle scars we show. They're our new starting point because we always strive to be better than our previous best.

Learn to ride the wave. You might not get it right the first time but that's okay. Just don't give up.