When Life Hands you Lemons: Acceptance and Positivity

I'm a young guy; 25 years old with a degree and I've always been pretty disciplined in life towards my goals. I didn't fall victim to the statistics of African American men in the country and I refused to be a product of my environment growing up. I've never failed a grade and I completed college in 4 years. It would seem like I would have a pretty successful career and living contently.... but i'm not.

I'm being plagued by the very same things that should be my motivation. My accomplishments validate to me even more why I should be somewhat successful in my career. Sadly, that's where it pretty much ends. I feel so defeated at times as a still fairly recent college graduate (2010). I was on such an incline in my life at one point in time and now that I've graduated, I'm stuck in my tracks.

The economy was in the worst state than in the past half a century and the job market plummeted completely. Graduates everywhere were faced with either three realities; go in debt further by advancing our education, search for a career in our related fields and hope to land a job offer or take a job that doesn't require a college education at all. Nothing wrong with working a job with no degree required, but when you spend thousand of dollars and countless man hours in your studies, you deserve what you've worked for.

On top of the stress of not landing that dream job I was promised by America if I went to college, I had a son by my college girlfriend. Now, not only am I trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life but now I have a family to love and support. I wasn't ready.
I wasn't prepared.
This just wasn't in my life plans at the moment.

But like I've been taught to do all my life, I picked up my lemons and attempted to make lemonade. I made pitcher after pitcher after pitcher. I've made so much metaphoric lemonade that now I've started picking apples and oranges too. That's how much struggle I went through. I bounced from job to job searching for something lucrative and fulfilling but nothing seemed to happen for me.

At times like these when I'm struggling the most, I turn inwardly to do some self reflecting. What am I missing? What am I not learning to keep having to repeat this same lesson? Then one day it came to me.... Acceptance. I needed to learn how to accept my life, my rotten lemons and make my lemonade with pride. I needed to stop focusing on what I thought I should be doing and focus on perfecting what I was doing.

They say you have to trust GOD with your whole heart and at that moment I started to realize more what that meant. Yes, I've always felt like I put my trust in the creator but only when things were going good for me and in the same direction that I thought they should be going. When I was at my worst states, not knowing how I would manage or get over my hurdles, I tend to get nervous and unsettled. I would pray about it but I still wouldn't sleep well. I would use weed and alcohol to help me cope and escape my worries (that's a whole 'nother story in itself).

It dawned on me that I accepted the good moments in my life, but i refused to accept the bad. When things didn't go according to MY PLANS, I would try to force MY WILL to be done instead of figuring out how to make the most out of my ordeal. Once I realized that, things started to change for me. I didn't get upset about almost anything anymore. I made Acceptance my word for 2013 and for that whole year I accepted EVERYTHING that came my way.

When things got tough, I kept calm, cool and collect. I prayed and I showed GOD that I really did trust him and believed that he would never let me fall further than I was able to climb. Through acceptance I learned quite a few lessons on forgiveness and patience as well. I forgave others for things they had done and I forgave myself for things that I held onto.

Now that 2013 is behind me and I put practical use to the concept of acceptance, I have declared the year 2014 to be my year of positivity. Not only will I be positive to myself and those around me but I will be positive in my approach to life and situations. The Law of attraction is the name given to the belief that "like attracts like" and that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results.

My journey into positivity has just begun... I look forward to concluding my thoughts in 2015.

Please comment below and tell me your thoughts!