Life Sucks

Look, I don’t need a drink to have a good time. I can easily be the life of the party anytime. And, as much as anyone, I like to joke around and be crazy.

That being said, most days, life sucks—and that’s okay.

You can spend your entire life chasing happiness, which usually leads to addiction, depression, anxiety, and bitterness over not living the perfect life you imagined. Or, you can just accept that life often sucks, shrug it off, minimize your regrets, and plan your days accordingly, starting from the end of your life and working backward to today.

For me, this means I don’t aim for my days to be a 10, a nine, or even an eight. If a day is a seven, six, or even a five, that’s fine. My goal is to avoid having too many ones, twos, or threes—or, God forbid, a zero where I literally feel like killing myself.

Fortunately, those zeros almost never happen. I credit this largely to managing my expectations. I expect life to suck sometimes. While I try to solve problems and improve things, I don’t let setbacks crush me. I anticipate a certain amount of pain and struggle—in fact, sometimes I actively seek it out.

If I’ve had a great day at work and things are going smoothly, maybe I’ll do two yoga sessions or push myself harder in strength training. I’ll intentionally do something physically demanding or go out of my way to help someone else until it feels a little painful—not too much, just enough.

Over time, this habit has made me more resistant to pain. I’m now able to take on greater challenges, both physical and mental, and offer more help to the people around me.

And I believe this resilience is contagious. While I don’t have hard data to prove it, I feel incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by hardworking, resilient people who can endure plenty of pain and still keep fighting another day.