15 Tough Lessons That Will Help You Reach New Heights In Life

We often focus only on learning skills that are directly pertinent to our jobs during the busy workweek. Wealthy and successful people, on the other hand, never stop reaching for new heights and learning new skills, even if a teacher or boss isn’t telling them to. The ultra-successful know that some other skills outside of their job description can also immensely improve their wealth and their life.

Here are 15 tough lessons that will help you reach new heights in life:

1. Failure Is Necessary

If you were incredible at everything you did, your life would be way too mundane. The people around you wouldn’t be able to relate, as they would likely be flawed and everything would be too easy for you. Failure is needed to keep life interesting while also helping you grow as an individual. Don’t try to avoid tough things in life because you’re afraid of failing.

2. You Need To Change

There are times when things go wrong in life. Most of us try to escape it, denying the truth life presents to us. When a problem occurs, most of the time it happens because something is not right. Everything happens for a reason and that reason leads to something else. Accept the fact that shit happened to teach you something, to push you to grow and to encourage you to change. Use this to change yourself for the better.

3. Thing Are Almost Never Perfect On Their Own

You can never count on the perfect idea or perfect solution to anything you wanted to accomplish without your hand and personal touches. Rather than making excuses and giving up success at something you’d like to do, take a fundamental starting point, tweak it, add to it or modify it to get a great result that makes you happy.

4. You Can’t Control Life, But You Can Control Yourself

There are circumstances in life that you can’t control. However, if you realize that you are in control of yourself no matter what happens, you will not ignore the unfortunate circumstances and use them as springboards for the better you.

5. Money Will NEVER Solve Your Real Problems

Money is a tool or a commodity that buys you necessities and some nice “wants,” but it is not the panacea to your problems. Happiness is not for sale. If you’re expecting the “stuff” you can buy to “make it better,” you will never be happy.

6. Pace Yourself

Often when we’re young and just beginning our adult journey, we feel as though we have to do everything at once. Slow down and breathe. Don’t always rush into things. Let your life unfold. Wait a bit to see where it takes you and take time to weigh your options.

7. You Can’t Change The Way Things Are, But You Can Change The Way You Look At Things

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you. By doing that, you will master the art of dealing with things no matter how easy or difficult they are. Use pain to motivate yourself and to become more determined. That in turn should cause you to work harder, smarter and longer.

8. You Can’t Please Everyone

You don’t need everyone to agree with you or even like you. It’s human nature to want to belong, to be loved, respected and valued. However, this should never be done at the expense of your integrity and happiness. Other people cannot give you the validation you seek. That has to come from within yourself. Speak up, stick to your guns, assert yourself when you need to, demand respect and most importantly stay true to your values.

9. Seeking Validation From Others Invalidates YOU

Has the “fear of rejection” held you back?  Have you ever been so fearful of what others might think or say about you that it kept you from taking positive action?  If that’s every happened, you’ve allowed someone else’s judgement dictate your life. Look beyond these individuals and always confidently step forward. The only person you need to validate decisions for is yourself, let everyone else think what they may.

10. Rid Yourself of Toxic And Negative People

Toxic people are “defective” and possess personality traits like narcissism, hate, anger, insecurity, jealousy and so forth. This will make you a target for their bull shit and will drag you down. Try to create a positive environment for yourself where you can thrive and grow through!

11. Life Is Too Unpredictable For Rigid Expectations

When you stop predicting and expecting things to be a certain way, you can appreciate them for what they are.  Ultimately you will realize that life’s greatest gifts are rarely wrapped the way you expected. The key is to accept that not everything is meant to be.  When things don’t turn out how you expected, you have to seriously sit down with yourself and come to grips with the fact that you were wrong about it all along. Set less expectations and you’ll find yourself being a lot happier.

12. The Hardest Opponent You’ll Ever Face Is Yourself

The toughest person in the way of you and your success is yourself. If you can win the battle against yourself, you have the opportunity to change the world. People are always too self conscious and limiting their own self beliefs, which in turn slow them down from achieving the success they deserve.

13. Apologies Are For You, Not Them

This isn’t as selfish as it may sound on the surface, but it’s important to recognize your own wrongdoings and to promote your own personal growth. Take responsibility for your actions and doing the right thing. Forgiveness is not the purpose of an apology, although it’s always welcomed. Additionally, there will be times in life when an apology will just not be enough. That’s the other person’s choice, not yours. More importantly, you need to forgive yourself. Accept that you’ve done what you can to correct your mistake and move forward with your life.

14. It’s Not All About You

You are not the epicenter of the universe. It’s tough to view the world from a perspective outside of your own since we are always so focused on what’s happening in our personal lives. It’s normal to be intensely aware of everything that’s going on in your own life, but you need to pay as much attention to what’s happening around you, and how things affect other people in the world as you do to your own life. It helps to keep things in perspective.

15. There’s No Shame In Not Knowing

No one has it all figured out. Nobody has all the answers. There’s no shame in saying “I don’t know.” Pretending to be perfect doesn’t make you perfect. It just makes you ignorant thinking that you can keep up a pretense of manufactured perfection. We learn as we go, that’s life. Regardless, nobody in the world knows it all. A little vulnerability makes you human and so much more relatable.

Conclusion

Life teaches us harsh lessons and we must be able to get through the tough times in our life. Being vulnerable is not a sign of weakness, but it’s a sign that we are human and we can relate to others. In this post, I shared with you 15 tough lessons that will help you reach new heights in life.