"Everything will work out." This phrase is the mantra you should tell yourself every day. It's easy to get overwhelmed with life and all of its demands, but this phrase will help you keep things in perspective. When you feel like nothing is going right, remind yourself that everything works out for a reason.

What causes us to lose hope?

Life is not all roses and rainbows. Circumstances happen, and all of us will spend a significant portion of our lives tackling various challenges. Sometimes, even when we do our best, using all the skills, knowledge, and resources available to us, things can still fail. We can get overwhelmed and start to lose hope. Some things cause us to feel more negatively when things start going downhill.

Expectations

Expectations are not wrong by themselves but having too much of them contributes to why we feel more anxious and stressed when things start going awry. Disappointments happen because we might have expected too much that something should happen a certain way.

As a simple example, why do you think you get disappointed by a movie you watched, a book you have read, or any work of fiction you have engaged in doing? It's because you might have expected something before you even started doing any of them. For example, the plot should go this way, and the characters should have interacted like that, this scenario should be present, the ending must be like this, etc. So when you finally start engaging in the work of fiction you like, you start getting disappointed because things are not happening the way you envisioned them.

It's the same thing with life. Many things in life can be uncertain, especially if you worry about what will happen in the future. We all want the idea of having an ideal future, but life won't immediately hand it to you. Expect that things can go crazy. You will encounter obstacles, and it takes time before we eventually realize and see the bigger picture of everything that is happening in our lives.

Control

Wanting to control every aspect of our lives can make us lose our footing once things go in different directions. Along with expecting too much, control makes us want to see things go a certain way. The reality is that you are not the sole factor that can influence the outcome of things. Many external factors can contribute to how a particular result can happen.

For example, if you run your own business and have several people working with you, it can be challenging to control everybody's actions to achieve a particular goal. You can tell others what they should do, but you don't know what other people are going through in their lives, which can affect how they do your commands and eventually affect the business's goal. So there's a limit to how much you can influence others' actions. Other people will have to decide how they will do things following what you told them to do.

We can control how we react when things happen and what we can do once something happens most of the time. Unfortunately, many people will panic or feel afraid when something terrible occurs. It's only normal to feel this way, but you must take action after the initial shock. Otherwise, nothing will happen with your life.

What to do when unfortunate things happen

All of us will have times when we have to undergo trials and tribulations in life. The question then is, are you going to crack under pressure or move forward in life? Saying "everything will work out" to yourself may sound cheesy, but it's the least you can do after trying everything at your disposal, and things are still not okay. You have done your best, but don't stop there. Continue doing your best and hope for the best. With your continued effort, some things can also give you the confidence to keep moving until the end.

Focus on the positive

When mishaps and troubles occur in your life, it's easy to lose and faith and focus. Some people tend to prioritize negative thoughts and give their attention to what's wrong with their lives. Instead, start believing in a positive outcome and stick to what you can do and what you have to achieve it.

Get a hold of yourself.

If you've ever come across the animated children's TV series "The Backyardigans," you will know who Pablo is. Pablo is a blue penguin character who tends to freak out whenever the gang encounters a troublesome situation. The team needs to calm him down to get his bearings together and start thinking and acting rationally again. Together, they manage to pull out of whatever sticky situation they find themselves and everything goes fine afterward.

In our life, sometimes the reason why we get overwhelmed is that we carry everything by ourselves. So when we start to panic over things going wrong with our life, take a moment of reprieve and get some break. Breath deeply and find somebody to talk to about your troubles. Who knows, your friends and colleagues might give you more than a piece of advice and are the ones who can help you solve your problems. You can then be like Pablo and the rest of the Backyardigans crew and sing merrily at the end of each struggle.

Broaden your horizon

Embrace the idea of open-mindedness, and you will be able to get through life much better. Part of the reason you might be freaking out is that you are only looking at one angle to solve your problems. If you become more open-minded, more doors will open, providing solutions you might not have thought about in the past. Talking to other people who are experts in the fields that you need help can do wonders. Trying out new things and ideas can also help you get out of trouble.

Take action

Nothing will happen if you spend all your time murmuring and taking pity on yourself. To bring about the slightest chance of positive change in your life, you have to take action. It doesn't matter, even if it's just a tiny thing. Taking the first step is essential as this is the one that can let you build momentum to make a more considerable progression in your life.

Stay positive all the time.

To stay positive all the time while we are struggling seems like a tall order. Not all of us have the conditioning to think positive when troubles are happening, but it's something that can give us comfort through the darkest times. At some point, having the faith that everything will work out no matter what kind of hell we are going through is the one thing that can push us to still keep on trying to live life to our fullest. We have to be patient until everything unfolds before us. You never know if the problems you are having right now are just intermissions before the good things start.