Life is no easy task, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you and themselves. Between friendships, work, school, relationships, family issues, finances, social media, mental health, physical health, beauty standards and a plethora of other aspects, life can be heavy. Being a college student myself, it seems as if these problems are hitting me all at once and are more intense than other age groups, but that might just be perspective. The point is, we all struggle and sometimes people hide it better than others. This being said, just because there’s always going to be struggles in life does not mean there’s no point in finding ways to combat them.
Over the last few years, finding ways to understand the struggles I go through and using trial and error to figure out what works best has been extraordinarily helpful. One method that has altered my mindset and the way I live my life has been having quotes or words of advice to live by. We’ve all experienced something someone has said to us and noticed how it just stuck. We couldn’t stop thinking about it and it seemed to add a whole new perspective to our lives. Unfortunately, the words that stick with us could be good or bad, but I want to share the good words that have helped me in the darkest of times, and that I’ve held closest to me over the years.
One day at a time.
Starting off with the most obvious, yet sometimes the most forgettable, this saying has helped me get through my days for as long as I can remember. We’ve all heard this one a million times, but the value this one holds can be hard to explain. From my own experience, life can be heavy in many different ways, but it can be exceptionally heavy if we try to carry it all at once. The problems we face in a day can be hard enough to face, so there’s no point in trying to carry the weight of tomorrow’s tomorrow. My advice would be to focus on what today’s battles are, and how to conquer them.
I am better because of you.
This is a piece of advice I wish more people knew and lived by. I seem to be saying this to myself constantly at this point in my life. In the era of college and entering your early 20s, it’s no secret that friendships fade over time, relationships end and some people from the past stages of your life don’t make it to the next one. This is normal for most people in our age group, and it’s also more than okay. Something I’ve witnessed more over the last few years is how when someone leaves our life (whether it’s by choice or force) our mind seems to go to a place of negative feelings and bad thoughts towards them. Being guilty of this myself, it can be easy to go in this direction, but I think an important thing we can learn is to remember how you are a better person because they were in your life. In my experience, I’ve learned something new from every person who’s been in my life and have become a better version of myself. Find the lesson they taught you (good or bad), live by it, and watch yourself become a better person because of it. I promise life is more fulfilling this way.
The Time is Going to Pass Anyway.
This quote is something I say to myself more than I should when I am suddenly tasked with a mountain of homework and difficult classes. But, it has helped me gain a new perspective. Time can be fast or slow depending on how content we are at the time, but it is always going to pass no matter what. In terms of college, you could spend four years of your life doing nothing and going nowhere instead of working, or getting a college degree. Eventually, that four years is going to pass, and you can either have a college degree by the time it does, or be wishing you did more in that time. This is how I apply it to my life, but it can really be applied to any situation where you want to do something, but are scared of the time and effort it will take. The time will pass, and you can either progress with it, or be left behind.
The approval of others is not yours to earn.
At our age, this phrase might be the most daunting to accomplish. With the stressful expectation of needing to find your lifelong friends, the love of your life and dream job, all in the four years you’re at college, wanting people to approve of you seems to be the key to success these days. As most of us do, I learned this lesson the hard way and have had to remind myself to let go of finding the approval of others. Some people will love you for who you are and everything you do, and others will never give you the time of day. Both of these we have to learn to be okay with. In the end, putting your self worth in another person’s hands based on their approval, will always fail.
If you did the best you could with what you had, it is now out of your control.
The last piece of advice I live by is something I want to leave with you, and let you think about how it may apply to your everyday life. The previous four are what have helped me the most, but it doesn’t mean they have to speak to you the same way. We all struggle in different ways and find comfort in different ways. We have to find what works for us. I hope the quotes that have helped me over the years have inspired you to find the quotes that keep you going when times are hard, and remind you that the light will outshine the darkness when the days are all added up.