The Year That Hurt You the Most Taught You the Most

It’s Okay If This Year Was Hard

It’s okay if this year broke you a little.

If it was filled with pain, failure, and moments where you felt completely lost, that’s alright. It’s just a year. One year out of an entire lifetime.

One day, you’ll look back and barely remember how heavy it felt. What feels endless now will become just a chapter, a necessary one. Because this year, as painful as it was, probably shaped you more than any other.

You might not see it yet, but this was the year that built you. The year you learned what resilience really means. The year you discovered consistency, patience, problem-solving, and the strength to stay calm even when everything was falling apart.

You lost a year, maybe, but you also saved decades of wandering without growth. You learned lessons now that will protect you for the next 30 years.
So be thankful. Not because it was easy, but because it’s over. The storm has passed. You made it. And now, you’re not the same person who entered it, you’re stronger, wiser, and more grounded.

Maybe this was the best year of your life, not because it was beautiful, but because it was brutal.
Because it stripped you down to your core and forced you to rebuild into someone greater.
You asked for growth, and life gave you struggle. You asked for strength, and God gave you obstacles. And through it all, you became the person you were meant to be.

The Heart of Emotional Intelligence

When you become truly emotionally intelligent, something changes inside you.
You stop hating people.
Not because they didn’t hurt you, but because you finally understand why they did.

You start to see the truth, that most adults walking around aren’t really adults at all. They’re wounded children carrying pain they never healed from, trapped inside grown-up bodies.

And when you realize that, you stop taking everything so personally.
You understand that people project their own fears, insecurities, and traumas onto others. They hurt because they’re hurting.

“Hurt people hurt people.”
It doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it explains it.
And once you see that, you can finally step back. You stop trying to fix them, or fight them, or absorb their pain. You just let them have their experience, without letting their brokenness break you.

That’s what emotional intelligence really looks like:
Grace without weakness.
Compassion without attachment.
Understanding without resentment.

And maybe that’s what this hard year was all about, not just surviving, but awakening.

Protect Your Energy Like It’s Your Currency

Leave people when they start draining your energy.
Walk away when something no longer serves you, no matter how much time you’ve already given.

Your time, your energy, your attention, they’re all investments. You don’t put them into something just for the sake of it; you do it expecting a return. It might be growth, peace, love, inspiration, or purpose but there has to be value.

If the return on investment is low, or worse, nonexistent, then stop investing.
Don’t keep pouring yourself into something that only empties you.

Know what you want.
Be clear about your goals and your direction.
Not everyone and not everything deserves access to your energy.

The moment you start protecting it, you’ll see how much lighter and more focused life feels. You’ll stop chasing things that drain you, and start attracting what truly grows you.