1. Attempting and learning new things is important, but that means failing sometimes.
2. Trying new social situations and meeting new people is important, but that sometimes means feeling awkward, uncertain, anxious.
3. Setting and working on goals is important, but that can also mean feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
4. Learning better ways to do things is important, but that means changing course or throwing away old plans that don’t make sense anymore.
5. Finding healthy and sustainable relationships is important, but it takes trial and error to find them.
6. If you never have sad or depressing or dark days, then you’re probably numb and not having good days either. 

Do you see where I’m going with this? It’s easy to see sadness and stress and uncertainty as purely negative, but life is more complicated than that. There’s a lot of worthwhile finish lines where everyone is covered in mud, sweat and tears at the end. Some very difficult feelings are the bitter part of a bittersweet goal that’s worth having. Bitter doesn’t mean bad, it’s just the other half of something you want.

I have a habit of zooming in too much with negativity. I get hella anxious going to new meetups, even though that’s how I’ve made great friends in the past. During difficult breakups I forget that’s part of finding something more healthy and sustainable. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but we have to learn to get out of it. Bittersweet is the only flavor in the buffet of life. Most of the time it is worth it, but we must remember the finish line we’re working towards while crawling through the mud.

Your race is different than mine. I can’t tell you when it’s going to get better, or what the best path through the mud is. I just want you to know the mud doesn’t mean you’re a failure. The only path forward is a difficult and dirty one. We’re all in the mud. Life is mud. Just don’t forget your finish line, whatever it is, because that is the sweet part of the bittersweet.