Constructive thinking toward our challenges

 There was a saying l have always heard since l was little. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.... l find a lot of truth in that. Being in college plus studying abroad bring many challenges to my life everyday. l have made myself sick of worrying in past years. l asked my self the same questions over and over. How am l going to do it? What if l can't? What if l need to go back to Turkey and obey my fate? As l worried it destroyed my ability to think rationally, it effected my attitude and motivation negatively toward achieving that goal. It caused a lot of fatigue in my body and daily energy level as well. Then one day, a very good friend of mine gave me a book called " How to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carnegie. It was written specifically for people like me, who worried and feared the worst. There are many strategies l learned from that book. It literally saved my life and sanity. But there is one thing it helped the most. One you face with a problem, you calm down, and ask couple questions to yourself;What is the problem?What is the cause of this problem? What can l do about it?  After asking these questions, l take two clean sheets of paper, and write my first option. l list the pros and cons of that option. Then l do the same thing for my second option. After weighing pros and cons of both options, l can come to a conclusion immediately. l count their pros and cons.Whichever choice has the most pros, l choose it. There is one thing important here, we should stick with this choice through self-sacrifice and perseverance. l also review the things that l am very uncomfortable in my current situation, and try to find constructive solutions that is gonna help me feel better. In my next post,l am going to talk about the challenges of being homesick and how we can make necessary changes in order to feel at home anywhere in the world.

 Don't ever forget, if life hands you a lemon, you can always make a lemonade.