Don't let the circumstances of hardship define what you want to really be and where you want to go. Whether its homelessness, unemployment, addiction, trauma. Even if you have been beaten down and lying in the gutter, you are not out and it is not over. You are not what is happening to you but you are what you choose to define yourself through what is happening to you. You have to believe in yourself and trust in your capacity to handle what is happening. You have to learn to become the most important asset to yourself.
Its how you keep on going and how you learn to adapt and thrive in your environment.
The worst thing you can do is give up on yourself and assume the role of victim in the whole process. What you choose to believe is what becomes your reality. If you let your circumstances control and define you, you will become victim to the self fulfilling prophecy this creates and all the negative self talk and self destruction that can come as a result. And now you're stuck and slowly you will learn to give up, stop trying and let everything consume you hoping it will all go away, which it won't. It will get worse.
Visualize where you want to be and how and what you will have to do to get there. Assess your environment and look at the relationships with everything. Piece together the story that got you where you are today and leave no stone unturned. This will help you keep grounded in the truth and it will also give your story meaning. That meaning is very important when developing strategies for coping with whatever you are going through. Make sense out of everything. The rest is all about making what you visualized a reality
