Life is a combination of ups and downs.
My journey through life has been filled with good and bad experiences.
These experiences, both the good and bad, have made me who I am.
I know that most of us, given a choice, would chose to minimize the bad times, and maximize the good times, to create a so called "good life".
But are bad things necessary for personal growth?
Does a life filled only with good times truly help you become the best version of yourself?
I often read that stress, which by it's nature, suggests something bad.
But perhaps bad is relative, and mildly bad things are actually good, because they cause stress, which allows us to learn to adapt and change.
And in the process of adaptation and change, we can become better versions of our selves.
The line between stress and injury
We often hear about parents or coaches who go to far when trying to discipline or train children.
Perhaps the line between stress and injury is a fine point, and perhaps it is difficult, but important to know where we should draw the line.
I think it is very important to know how to exercise only to the point of stress, but not injury, to grow our muscles and strengthen our joints.
Perhaps, emotional stress is the same situation.
Perhaps it's okay to emotionally stress people, but NOT okay to emotionally injure people.
I think this is also correct because I think emotional stress causes emotional growth, and hopefully progress towards emotional maturity.
But emotional injury, causes emotional setbacks, regression and the opposite of emotional maturity, emotional immaturity.
Last words
I think this balance, between stress and injury, is the balance we should seek in life.
We should selectively engage in experiences which stress us, so we can grow. This allows us to become bigger and better versions of ourselves.
But we should avoid experiences which injure us, because they cause the opposite of growth, instead regression. I think injury doesn't make things bigger and stronger versions of themselves. It makes them smaller and weaker versions of themselves.
What do you think?