The Year Everyone Wanted to End
2025 was heavy. For a lot of people, it wasn’t just “hard”—it was exhausting. The collective fatigue was real. The desire to fast-forward through the last few months? Understandable.
But here’s the truth you probably don’t want to hear: you don’t get to skip struggle. You get to decide how you meet it. The energy you put in is what you get out—and that applies to how you approach difficulty just as much as how you approach success.
If 2026 is going to be different, it won’t be because the world suddenly got easier. It will be because your relationship to discomfort changed. It will be because you stopped running from hard seasons and started learning how to sit with discomfort in a way that actually transforms you.
The Lie We’re Taught About Struggle
We’re sold this idea that struggle means something has gone wrong. That pain is a sign to escape, rush, or fix. That if we were doing it “right,” it wouldn’t hurt this much.
That’s a lie.
Struggle isn’t a detour. It’s the curriculum.
Personal growth during hard times doesn’t happen in spite of the difficulty—it happens because of it. The discomfort you want to avoid is often the exact teacher you need. When you understand that the energy you put in is what you get out, you start approaching challenges differently. You stop asking “why me?” and start asking “what now?”
My Breaking Point: When Desperation Became My Energy
Let me tell you about my lowest point.
I was stuck in a toxic job with toxic leadership. Anxiety became my constant companion. Sleep was a stranger. I was applying for jobs in a state of pure panic—refreshing job boards at 2 AM, customizing cover letters with shaking hands, trying to manufacture enthusiasm for roles I barely understood.
I was doing more. Trying harder. Getting nowhere.
And then it hit me: the energy I was putting into everything was desperation—and that’s exactly what I was getting back.
Desperate applications attracted ghosting. Desperate networking repelled connections. Desperate dating attracted unavailable people. Because here’s what nobody tells you: energy travels. It shows up in your applications, your relationships, your conversations, your choices. The energy you put in is what you get out—always.
Doing vs. Feeling: Why Staying Busy Kept Me Stuck
My response to pain was productivity. Constant motion. Noise.
I was applying to jobs nonstop—quantity over quality. Swiping on dating apps like my thumbs could outrun my loneliness. Filling every quiet moment with podcasts, scrolling, and plans. Drinking to take the edge off. Socializing to avoid sitting alone with my thoughts.
Here’s the hard truth: busyness can be a form of avoidance. And I was avoiding at an Olympic level.
Nothing changed until I stopped trying to outrun how I felt. Nothing shifted until I admitted that the energy I was putting into distraction was giving me more reasons to be distracted. When you understand that the energy you put in is what you get out, you realize that running from your feelings just creates more feelings to run from.
What Learning to Sit With Discomfort Actually Looks Like
This isn’t about meditation apps and bubble baths. This is about the unglamorous, uncomfortable work of being present with yourself when being present hurts.
Sitting with discomfort looks like:
- Sitting in silence without reaching for your phone
- Journaling without trying to fix anything
- Crying without needing an explanation
- Ranting into voice notes just to get it out of your body
- Walking without headphones
- Saying out loud: “I don’t know what’s next.”
Coping with adversity isn’t about having answers. It’s about building the capacity to not have them—and being okay anyway.
Sitting with discomfort isn’t passive. It’s courageous. It’s you telling yourself: “I trust myself enough to feel this without being destroyed by it.”
Rituals That Shift Energy (Without Bypassing Reality)
I’m not here to sell you manifestation without action. That’s not how this works.
What worked for me was grounded, not fluffy:
- Daily walks with short Law of Attraction clips—not to escape reality, but to remember that my current reality wasn’t permanent
- Prayer without asking for shortcuts
- Journaling to understand, not to manifest
- Movement to release emotion—not to punish my body
- Letting the process take the time it takes
This is about regulating your energy so your actions land differently. Because the energy you put in is what you get out—and regulated energy produces different results than frantic energy.
This isn’t manifestation magic. This is the mindset during struggle. This is choosing to believe that how you show up matters, even when outcomes feel uncertain.
The Pattern I Couldn’t Ignore
When I zoomed out, I saw it clearly.
My career didn’t shift because I applied to more jobs. It shifted after my internal state shifted. My weight changed. Opportunities appeared. Relationships evolved. And it all happened after—not before—I changed how I was approaching my life.
This wasn’t luck. This wasn’t a coincidence.
This was alignment plus perseverance plus staying. This was proof that the energy you put in is what you get out. Emotional growth in difficult seasons creates a foundation that luck can’t replicate.
The Quiet Place Victimhood Hides
Let’s talk about something uncomfortable.
Victimhood doesn’t always look dramatic. It’s not always crying on the floor or blaming everyone else. Sometimes it sounds like:
- “Why does this always happen to me?”
- “Nothing ever works out.”
- “I’ll be happy when…”
I’ve said all of these things. Maybe you have too.
Here’s the compassionate truth: you can honor what hurt you without letting it run your life. To stop the victim mindset doesn’t mean pretending you weren’t wronged. It means deciding that your past doesn’t get to write your future.
Victimhood isn’t shameful—staying there is costly. And the cost is your life.
Reclaiming Agency Without Self-Blame
Reclaiming power isn’t about self-blame. It’s not about saying “I caused all my problems.”
It’s about asking: “What would it look like to move from this happening to me, to me deciding what happens next?”
You’re not stuck with the story others wrote for you. You deserved better—and you still get to choose what’s next.
Power isn’t denial. Power is ownership.
When you accept that the energy you put in is what you get out, you stop waiting for circumstances to change and start changing how you meet circumstances. That’s agency. That’s growth.
The Part I’m Still Learning: Love and Relationships
I want to be honest with you here because trust is earned through vulnerability.
I’ve gotten better at career rituals. I’ve learned how to approach my professional life with intention and regulated energy. I’ve seen the results.
But relationships? That’s where I’m still learning.
I catch myself slipping into old patterns—expecting disappointment, building walls, telling myself stories about what I deserve based on what I’ve experienced.
And then I have to remind myself: I don’t get to declare my future based on my past.
I own the last 44 years. They don’t own the next 44.
Healing without toxic positivity means admitting you’re still healing. It means acknowledging that personal growth during hard times isn’t a straight line—it’s a spiral.
The Truth Behind the Image
Let me break an illusion for you.
People see the strength and the hustle. They see the business, the content, the confidence.
What they don’t see: income cut in half during transitions. Tight months where the math didn’t math. Selling lunch to buy dinner. Real, actual struggle.
But here’s what I learned: power isn’t having it all figured out. Power is staying when quitting would be easier.
The energy you put in is what you get out—and sometimes that energy is just showing up one more day when everything in you wants to stop.
The Smallest Doorway Back to Power
If everything I’ve said feels overwhelming, here’s your first step:
Admit you don’t know.
That’s it. That’s the doorway.
Not knowing isn’t failure. Not knowing is honest. And as long as you haven’t given up, there is still hope.
You don’t need certainty to keep going. You just need to keep going.
For the Person Who Thinks They’re Behind
If you’re reading this and thinking “I should be further along by now”—stop.
Healing isn’t linear. Still struggling doesn’t mean you’re weak. Rushing past pain is what keeps it alive.
Let yourself exhale.
You’re not falling apart. You’re falling into yourself.
And that process—that uncomfortable, uncertain, sometimes painful process—is exactly how resilience in career and life gets built.
Closing: The Only Real “Trick” to Life
Here’s the truth with no fluff:
Struggle is guaranteed. No amount of wealth, love, or spirituality exempts you from difficulty. Life doesn’t give you an opt-out button.
What you resist persists. Everything is temporary—both joy and pain. Power is built, not found.
The energy you put in is what you get out. That’s not just a nice quote for Instagram. That’s the operating principle of your entire life.
You can’t avoid struggle. But you can learn how to sit with it—and that’s what turns survival into a life worth living.
Ready to stop surviving and start building a career that matches who you’re becoming?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call and let’s talk about what’s next for you.
http://calendly.com/rosey-singh-eunioa/free-strategy-call
Rosey has 15 years of HR experience and runs Eunioa, a career concierge service that helps professionals break through career plateaus with optimized resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and strategic job search support.
