Life

How To Be Grateful For Things That Don't Work Out

by Brianna Wiest

It's one of those weird facts of life that the things that don't work out are the ones you'll be most grateful for in the end. There are so many reasons why this is so, but let's start with the most important thing of all: you must remember this when you feel like you're losing everything. When you're heartbroken, when you feel like you've been rejected, fired, and failed. It seems impossible in the moment, but when you stop and start to think: "I will be grateful for this," you open your mind to what else could be possible — what would make you grateful to not have that relationship, or job, or friend anymore, and you begin to seek it.

So yes, you'll be grateful because even when we consciously choose what we want, we subconsciously choose something that's better for ourselves. You'll be grateful because we desire the things we lose out of lack, not out of what would honestly help us thrive. You'll be grateful because what you learn in the process of mourning, and healing, and putting your life back together again, is invaluable, and makes everything seem so worth it in the end.

But most of all, you'll be grateful because there's rarely ever a relationship that ends, or a job that falls through, or a friendship that fails, or a goal you have to give up on that you won't be better for having let go of. The things that need to go have to go for a reason, and at the end of the day, you'll realize that the only problem was your inability to see why.

What We Learn From Loss Is More Important Than Never Losing

The kind of person you become because you've been heartbroken, because you've known failure, because things haven't worked out, is so much more important than being someone who always succeeds. It makes you more loving, more open-hearted, more open-minded, and overall serves such a crucial purpose.

We Can't Consciously Choose What We Want — We Simply Don't Know Anything But What We've Had

We are psychologically incapable of being able to predict what will make us happy. The best route to go is just doing what's meaningful, or worthwhile. Happiness is not something you find in something else, it's something you bring to everything you do.

Breakdowns Are Always Breakthroughs — We Just Don't Know It At The Time

I've never heard of someone who got to the other side of some terrible loss and didn't ultimately arrive at the conclusion that it was for the best. It always is, even if we can't see it at the time. Your subconscious mind is orchestrating your life — not your conscious one. And based on the fact that it accounts for most of your intelligent processing abilities... maybe you should learn to trust it a little more.

Images: Giphy (3); Unsplash