This Is What Growth Actually Feels Like

I remember the day I hit rock bottom like it was yesterday. It was a rainy Tuesday in my tiny apartment, staring at a stack of rejection emails from jobs I desperately needed. At 32, I felt like a failure—divorced, broke, and drowning in self-doubt. Growth? It sounded like a buzzword for Instagram influencers. But that day, something shifted. This is what growth actually feels like: not a straight line upward, but a gritty, tear-streaked climb through the mud.

The Weight of the Struggle

My name is Sarah, and for years, I chased the "perfect" life. A stable marriage, a corner office, the white picket fence. But perfection cracked under pressure. My ex left because I was "too ambitious," my savings vanished in the divorce, and every interview ended with, "You're overqualified." I stopped looking in the mirror because the woman staring back had lost her spark.

Nights blurred into days of Netflix binges and microwave dinners. Friends tried to help, but their pep talks felt hollow. "Just push through," they'd say. Push through what? The voice in my head screaming I wasn't enough? That's when the struggle hit hardest—not just the bills piling up, but the fear that I'd never rise again. Perseverance isn't glamorous; it's choosing to get up when every bone in your body screams to quit.

The First Crack of Light

One morning, amid the chaos, I stumbled upon an old journal from college. Pages filled with dreams of writing, traveling, starting my own business. I'd buried those under "adulting." With nothing left to lose, I dusted off my laptop and wrote a single blog post about my divorce. Raw, honest words poured out—no filters, just truth.

To my shock, it went viral in a small online community. Comments flooded in: "This is me." "Thank you for being real." That tiny breakthrough lit a fire. Growth feels like this: a flicker of hope in the darkness, urging you to take one more step. I enrolled in free online courses, networked on LinkedIn at 2 a.m., and applied to 50 jobs a week. Rejections still stung, but now they fueled me.

Breakthroughs Born from Brokenness

Months in, courage kicked in. I landed a freelance gig writing for a local magazine. It paid peanuts, but it was mine. No more begging for approval. I poured my struggles into every piece—stories of women rebuilding after loss. Readers connected because it was real, not rehearsed.

Then came the real test: my mom's cancer diagnosis. Watching her fight reignited my own perseverance. We talked late into nights about dreams deferred. "Growth isn't avoiding pain, Sarah," she whispered. "It's letting it change you." Her words became my mantra. I quit freelancing scraps and pitched a book idea to publishers. The first "no" crushed me, but I revised and pitched again. By her bedside, I signed my first contract.

Transformation doesn't happen in comfort zones. It feels like muscles tearing during a workout—painful, exhausting, but building strength you didn't know you had.

The Quiet Triumph

Two years later, I'm not "fixed," but I'm free. My book hit shelves, a bestseller in self-help. I run workshops for divorced women, turning my pain into their power. Mom beat cancer; we celebrate with coffee dates, laughing about old journals. Success isn't a trophy; it's waking up excited for the day, scars and all.

Growth feels like shedding old skin—itchy, vulnerable, but revealing something stronger underneath. It's the hope that whispers, "You've got more in you." The courage to try again. The breakthrough after a thousand failures.

If you're in the trenches right now, hold on. This mess? It's molding you into someone unbreakable. Share your story, take that step, embrace the ache. You've already won by showing up. What's your next move? Like, share, and let's grow together.

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Thank you for reading...

Regards: Fazal Hadi