Highs and Lows

“Life ain’t nothing but an EQ of highs and lows” – Big K.R.I.T.

Life is based on balance. No matter who you are, there will always be good times and bad; highs and lows. I believe this is absolutely necessary to accept, despite it being extremely frustrating at times. Of course we all want the highs in life, but as I once overheard on a busy street, “Sometimes you just gotta get your ass kicked.” The comment came from a middle-aged working class man who was speaking with his friend of the same ilk about their progress with a project. The man had been achieving success with seemingly every facet of the project, until things started to fall through. In the moments of despair, surely he felt the crushing blow of defeat, but in hindsight was able to recognize the change of events as the natural way of checks and balances. As we all should.

Personally, I remind myself of the necessity of lows to achieve the highs. Though it is often when I am experiencing a high, or neutral state, that I welcome such setbacks. For in the depths of the lows, I find myself easily frustrated. I yearn for those highs, and convince myself that I’ve had enough of the lows. I then get angry with myself for not achieving a high state immediately, thus plunging me deeper in the depths. This can go on for days, where I believe I can change my situation entirely in a matter of moments. All I need is to set up a rigorous schedule and the discipline to stick to said schedule. But this does not change my state. The only way is to accept the situation for what it is. To feel the despair, without any resentment or sorrow, and then move forward. Because the sooner we accept the low, the sooner we can think clearly about where we are. It puts us in the moment. It makes us take stock of what we have and where we are and what we need to do to get where we want to go.

Deep down, we all know that everything worthwhile takes hard work, that everything takes time. But all too often we don’t want to accept it. This is why so many of us don’t even try, or why so many of us want to jump immediately to where we want to go. This won’t, and will never, happen, which results in a life of quiet desperation. So it is in our best interest to watch the ebb and flow of our life with an appreciative eye. Yes there will be experiences of pain and defeat, but it is through the friction caused in those trials that allow us to rise to Olympian heights. Nobody wants to watch a movie where everything goes great all the time, nor do we want to watch something that is completely negative. We yearn for the peaks and valleys. They are ingrained in us. So embrace them both, fully and deeply, because they both come standard with the price of admission.