NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN (ESSAY)

NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN 2021202310179

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NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN 2021202310179

EXPLAIN HOW WE BECOME STRONGER WHEN WE ARE FACED WITH DIFFICULT TIMES IN
LIFE.

Everyone has their own experience of having to go through difficult times in their life.

Difficult times are different for everyone, one might have a financial problem, one might have

gone through a difficult time as they lost their beloved ones, or

it could be anything other than that. However, the difficult times

were worth it as it eventually led us to become stronger in

surviving our lives as the psychologists state that traumatic

events can make us stronger both physically and mentally.

Indeed, life is full of challenges and the longer we live, the more Losing our loved ones
obstacles we must face in order to survive this hellish life. Truth whether they are our
to be told, of course there would be some important lessons in friends or family can be
life that were only taught through hardships in which we could considered as facing
say that hardships have proved countless times that it initially difficult times as it will be
will instil the virtue of gratitude in ourselves, other than leading hard for them to accept
the truth.

us to go through self-improvement and build our self-efficacy. To put it simply, we might have

been in a tough situation, but we must believe that it is for our own good as we can learn many

things from the hardships we had faced. It is precisely as John Maxwell (n.d.) remarked that
“facing difficulties is inevitable, learning from them is optional”. Therefore, facing difficult times

is without a doubt will make us stronger if we choose to learn some life lessons to overcome

the hardships.

Facing hardships, obstacles and hindrances in our life can make us stronger as it instils
the virtue of gratitude in ourselves. This is because going through difficult times has left us
with a lasting impression and it alters the way we view our lives. We could take an example
that during that time, we lost everything valuable to us, whether it is a person, wealth, or
anything else we deem important or significant. It is human nature to miss something only
when it disappears, which happens during the hard times. According to the article that I have
read regarding how gratitude can help us through hard times that was written by Robert
Emmons on 13th May 2013, it says that the process of remembering how difficult life used to
be and how far we have come sets up an explicit contrast that is fertile ground for gratefulness.
As a result, we learned to appreciate everything that we had from the smallest thing to the
biggest thing, we will always make sure to take a good care and be more appreciative with

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NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN 2021202310179

them. For example, if it was someone who we loved dearly, after the hardships ended, we
tried to show them that we really value them by sending them some gifts or writing them a
letter that shows how we appreciate their existence. Having gratitude towards everything will
make us stronger as we will also learn to appreciate and protect everything that belongs to us.
Thus, this has proved that as going through difficult times instils the virtue of gratitude in us,
we end up getting stronger in a good way.

Moreover, it will also lead to self-improvement as the hardships certainly teach us to
always improve ourselves to survive the tough situation. This is because during our difficult
times, we kept on improving ourselves and learned from the mistakes we had made as we
had no choice but to be good at handling the situation. Even the famous painter, Vincent van
Gogh had only sold one painting when he first started becoming a painter. Despite of that, he
kept on improving his painting and continued making art without even feeling down with the

sell numbers and now, we could see that those who
appreciate art went as far as wanting to buy his painting for
millions of dollars. That is why hardships are essential and
once we get used to the difficult times, we start to think of a
better way to get out of the hardships and improve ourselves
which basically means that we are becoming more mature
and careful in deciding how to cope with the situation. Without a doubt, self-improvement and
motivation go hand in hand. When we see ourselves developing as a human being, we are
filled with optimism and the drive to push ourselves to do better (Adela Belin, 2021). From this,
we can conclude that terrible times make us stronger as we always tried to improve ourselves
to become a better person.

Subsequently, overcoming challenges and surviving the hard times also help in
building our self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a person’s particular set of beliefs that determine how
well one can execute a plan of action in prospective situations (Bandura, 1977). In another
words, it refers to the belief or the confidence in our ability to overcome challenges and
hindrances and trust ourselves that we will initially be able to succeed in surviving our difficult
times. After experiencing some difficult times, we became more confident in facing hardships
and we are no longer being a scaredy cat when it comes to overcoming our difficult times.
Hence, we get to plan to face the hardships better and be more prepared to welcome them.To
illustrate, an introvert person finds that it is hard for them to speak in public or in front of people
and even if it involves only three to four people, they are still scared and do not have the

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NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN 2021202310179

confidence to face them. Nevertheless, once they get used to the An introvert always has
hard times, they will start to get the grasp of how to deal with the a hard time to speak in
situation thus increasing their self-efficacy and they end up front of people as they
getting braver to speak in public. Thereupon, gaining self- have a low self-
confidence can make us stronger even though it may be a slow confidence.
process, but it surely will have a good effect on anyone who has
experienced their own difficult times.

To summarise, no one can deny that a life of hardships is essential in building a better
self. It is also necessary for us to go through tough times in order to get stronger since
challenging circumstances teach us to be appreciative, lead to self-improvement, and increase
our self-efficacy. In addition, people who will stand in front of the difficulties which they may
face will be able to improve themselves and let their dreams come true by getting stronger in
their lives. This eventually means that difficult times can influence people positively. Thus, we
must always give ourselves a second chance to improve and stop feeling down every time we
have to face difficult times, instead we should take risky steps with caution and most of all, we
should be fearless and try every solution we think of. Overall, rough times indeed can change
our lives forever as it teaches us to learn from our difficult situations and climb over the huge
mountains. As Jack Ma (2017) said “ never give up, today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but
the day after tomorrow will be sunshine” and that is why we should never give up in overcoming
our difficult times. We must believe that difficult times are important to make us stronger both
physically and mentally.

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NURUL IFFAH BINTI ROSLAN 2021202310179

REFERENCES :

Adela Belin. (2021). The importance of self improvement no matter how old you are.
Retrieved on December 4, 2021 from https://www.lifehack.org/819195/importance-of-
self-improvement

Gabriel Lopez Garrido. (2020). Self-efficacy theory. Retrieved December 14, 2021 from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-efficacy.html

Kaanchan. (2019). Facing challenges makes you stronger. Retrieved on December 5, 2021
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/facing-challenges-makes-you-stronger- kaanchan

Matthew Royse. (2020). Hard times can make you stronger and more successful. Retrieved
on December 4, 2021 from https://medium.com/5-minute-sweet-spot/hard-times-can-
make-you-stronger-and-more-successful-f1fcd90b7af

Paula M. Davis. (2020). On balance : 5 ways that adversity makes you stronger. Retrieved on
December 4, 2021 from
https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/WisconsinLawyer/Pages/Article.aspx?Articl
eID=27870&Issue=7&Volume=93

Robert Emmons. (2013). How gratitude can help you through hard times. Retrieved on
December 18, 2021 from
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_can_help_you_through_
hard_times

Steph (2021). 5 reasons going through hard times makes you stronger. Retrieved on
December 5, 2021 from https://www.mysaltwaterskyline.com/5-reasons-going-
through-hard-times-makes-you-stronger/

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