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3 Reasons Why You Never Want to Avoid Adversity

There’s no such thing as a perfect, problem-free life. No matter how rich, famous, or powerful you are, the Universe will always find a way to bring adversity, which threatens to create disturbance in your life. The normal human reaction, when faced with adversity, is to try and gain control over our situation. 

Let’s be honest, when we’re feeling a lot of pressure from problems in life, our first thought is how to remove these obstacles. Sometimes, in trying to quickly take some of the weight off our shoulders, we’re spending more time looking for overcoming adversity articles online rather than taking a step back to reflect and understand the true purpose of adversity and how we can benefit from it. 

Difficulties and adversity are the Universe’s way of providing you with opportunities for growth. Constantly avoiding adversity can prevent you from moving forward. This leads to stagnation which is the biggest obstacle on your path to success.

We can all agree that most of us would prefer an easy way out of our problems. However, this kind of mentality is not something that we should foster in ourselves. We aim to enlighten you on how facing adversities in your life will become an integral part of your success. 

Table of Contents

We’ve all been there. When faced with many hardships, you sometimes start to wonder if the Universe has a grudge against you. However, this is not the case at all. 

When you find yourself constantly facing adversities, it is a strong sign that you are on the right path in your life. Rather than being a hindrance to your success, the experience you gain upon facing each of these challenges contributes to your growth and brings you closer to your goal.  It might not be too farfetched to say that each adversity that you choose to ignore is an opportunity wasted.

“Problems are the gifts that make us dig out and figure out who we are, what we’re made for, and what we’re responsible to give back to life.” 

–Tony Robbins

When it comes to developing a person’s strengths, there is no substitute for the experience you gain by going through obstacles. More importantly, each adversity you choose to face strengthens your resilience and helps you be more prepared for any challenges that you will face in the future.

Resiliency means having the capacity to quickly bounce back from difficulties, which is a great skill to have in life. However, being resilient is not something that can be genetically passed down or taught at school. This is a virtue that is fortified through experience. That is exactly why facing adversities plays an important role in our intrapersonal growth.

Attempting to overcome your problems is the best practice for building resilience, regardless of whether you succeed or not. When faced with adversities, you have two options; either you resist or you simply become passive. No matter how you wish to deal with a present challenge, it’s just a matter of time before you are faced with another. That is why we must take every adversity as an opportunity to practice and get better at handling future obstacles.

Accepting the fact that having challenges is part of life is a useful ability and helps in developing resilience.

Success is not something that you can accomplish on a whim. It is achieved through hard work and a series of right decisions while having the right mindset to achieve it. Without adversities to challenge you, you may not have the opportunity to make those decisions nor develop the strengths you need to accomplish it. 

To put it simply; without adversity, there is no opportunity for growth.

Humans are cognitive beings. It is in our nature to acquire significant knowledge through experience and develop proficiency through practice. Making decisions in the face of adversity stimulates our critical thinking.  We can lessen our chances of failure by taking smart-risks and using the knowledge we have acquired from previous adversities. It also mentally prepares you for the possibility of experiencing occasional failures so that you don’t take a hard blow and become discouraged on continuing your journey towards your goal.

Both risk and opportunity always go hand in hand. Making decisions in the face of adversity may sometimes involve taking risks, and for that reason, some of us may feel uncomfortable with facing adversities. 

As the saying goes, avoiding a problem won’t solve it, and, if you choose to continuously avoid them, it could create a long-term problem for you.

1. Avoiding Adversity Hinders You From Achieving Your Goals

Contrary to popular belief, it is not adversity that prevents you from reaching your goals. It is actually the decision to avoid problems and challenges, that prevents you from taking the necessary steps to reach your goals

When you are moving towards a certain goal, it is not possible to avoid all adversity along the way. When faced with overwhelming pressure from these adversities, you start doubting yourself whether your goal is worth the effort. 

With this doubt in our minds, we are tempted to take a detour around the problem. But what if you find yourself facing the same adversity later on? Or worse, you are faced with bigger adversity than before. In the end, you just delayed the inevitable. 

All goals by their very nature are challenging and an improvement over your current situation, thus they have challenges and problems to solve to be able to achieve them. As you take the steps in working towards your goal you are overcoming adversity. Therefore avoiding adversity will only slow down your progress or stop you from achieving your goal.

2. Dodging Adversity Makes You Vulnerable to Change

Resiliency is not the only thing you develop when you face adversities. Through experiencing hardships, you also develop adaptability and a positive mindset towards accepting change and new situations. Constantly avoiding adversities causes you to miss out on a lot of opportunities to grow.

Change is something in life we cannot avoid if there is one thing in life that is certain it is that things must change, especially if you are setting and achieving life goals. Thus, developing adaptability is imperative if you want to succeed.

Failure to adapt may bring you to a point where you view all changes in your life as adversity. This can add more pressure every time you encounter a new challenge, and increase the likelihood you will try to avoid change and the opportunity to make better life changes. 

3. Evading Adversity Makes You More Susceptible to Stress

The stress that comes with adversity is one of the biggest reasons why most of us choose not to face it. However, what most people don’t realize is that avoidance of adversity, in the long run, will only bring more stress into your life.

Your threshold to handle stress is something that is developed by continuously exposing yourself to some level of stress that you can handle. Think of this example, this threshold is similar to how your muscles work as they need to be exercised regularly. Exposing muscle to resistance makes it stronger. On the other hand, the less you use it, the more atrophy and weakness develop.

As you avoid problems and adversity, you lose the ability to cope and effectively handle even normal stress levels. Your stress threshold gets weaker and weaker, and you may become more easily overwhelmed when facing adversity. 

Final Thoughts

Adversities, regardless of their magnitude, can make you feel overwhelmed at times. However, instead of spending time trying to find a detour around it,  why not spend that time reflecting on the higher purpose of what you’re going through and how much stronger you will be once you’ve tackled it instead?

No matter how hard you try to avoid adversity, it will come your way sooner or later. Tempering yourself through problems and challenges is the best way to overcome your future adversities. Thus, adversities should be something that we welcome with open arms rather than repeatedly becoming a victim of circumstance. As a part of life, it is something we should use as a tool to help with our personal development and growth and always learn from.

Tommy P.
Tommy P.

My very first thought when I became aware of my very own consciousness in this earthly world was... "whoa... why are we here? what's the meaning or purpose to life?" I was never able to shake these questions... So come join me on my podcast of rants on many different topics that will assist you in seeing things through a rose-colored lens and on living a life of well-being.

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