Like everybody on earth, I’ve had my fair share of hard times. Some heartbreaking, wrenching and painful moments that I would have done anything to avoid. My mother unexpectedly passing away when I was 18 only being one of them. Looking back on it, I wish someone had told me some words of encouragement back then. Those hard times aren’t easy in any way but I believe that we can all manage to overcome them by mustering our inner strength.
Before we dive into the actual words of encouragement for hard times, I’d like to address some core principles I suggest you live by in order to effectively go through whatever you’re dealing with. These are principles that have tremendously helped me in my life, and so I’m sure you’ll benefit greatly from them. Lastly, I wish from the bottom of my heart that you will successfully deal with your current challenge and grow from it.
WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HARD TIMES – GUIDING PRINCIPLES
TRUST YOURSELF
Being struck by a seemingly insurmountable situation can easily debilitate us, which is why the first step is to believe in yourself. Believe that you have the necessary strength within yourself to get over it, and that you will not surrender no matter what. Nurturing this relationship with yourself is crucial because what determines whether or not you will rise above this adversity is you. Two people can go through the exact same challenge, and yet one of them will succeed while the other won’t. The difference lies in the mindset component.
Belief has always been the core foundation of any action – this is what drives human behaviour, after all. Circumstances may have led you to doubt yourself, but you must keep moving forward.
SELF-LOVE
Nothing good ever came out of self-hatred, which is why you must make sure that you’re still having a good, healthy relationship with yourself. Don’t let negative self-talk sneak in, don’t neglect yourself and give yourself some love.
This can take many forms: treat yourself, compliment yourself, be grateful for being the way you are.. Loving yourself is an important step in dealing with a challenge, because it prevents hard times from crushing you.

FOCUS ON THE BIGGER PICTURE
What you’re experiencing right now may feel like a living hell. But no matter how painful and difficult it is, there is always something good that can come out of it. Focusing on that aspect is key because it will help you extract the strength you need. Hopefully my words of encouragement will help you do that.
As you can imagine, when I learned that my mom had passed away, I couldn’t find anything to be happy about. I could only see things from one, tiny perspective. However, things changed when I started expanding my view. “Maybe I can learn something from that experience,” I thought. “Maybe there’s something good I can get out of it”. Sure enough, I got the answer I was looking for. I knew that this experience was making me stronger as a human being and more matured. It instantly changed the way I felt about the situation.
It doesn’t mean that you should believe in the same thing. What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for you. But finding that long-term benefit will fuel you.
FIND EMPOWERING REASONS
Reasons are what drive us. No one does anything without a reason first. We are all actively pursuing something – consciously or not – from the most materialistic things to the most primal.
Convincing yourself that you need to go through this experience by giving tough reasons is essential.
DON’T GIVE UP
Last but not least, don’t give up. Never. No matter how powerless and hopeless you feel. This is the worst thing you could ever do because the moment you give up is the moment you stop enjoying your life. It doesn’t have to be that way. I know for a fact that we all have the strength to keep going, but not everyone will be willing to look for it.
MY LIST OF WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HARD TIMES
Let’s go over 24 words of encouragement for hard times so that you can get inspiration from it.
- Hard times is what shapes strong people.
- There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
- Growth is part of life. And growth comes from adversity.
- Everybody has the necessary strength to overcome a challenge.
- A muscle only becomes stronger after tearing its fibres.
- Every challenge shapes you into a better person.
- The more difficult it is and the more you will grow.
- No matter how rough, winter never lasts.
- Happiness can always be found within yourself.
- Everything happens for a reason.
- God strategically put this event into your life so that you can learn something valuable from it.
- Life becomes much more enjoyable when you realise what you had to go through to get there.
- Failure is feedback.
- You’re stronger than you think.
- Even if you keep falling, always get back up.
- One idea can solve all your problems. One idea can change your life.
- Failure is a great learning experience.
- Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from failing.
- Keep faith in yourself.
- Nothing can destroy you unless you let it.
- Life would be boring if it wasn’t spiced up once in a while.
- No matter what you’re going through, somebody else in the world has gone through much worse and managed to overcome it. So can you.
- Don’t let external events influence your psyche. You’re in full control of how you react to the outside world.
- Keep trying until you succeed. If one approach doesn’t work, it just means you need to adjust it. Do something else.
In the end, no word of encouragement I could ever say to you will make any experience easy to go through. But by adopting some of the mindsets I’ve talked about, those experiences are going to seem easier on you. Hard times are a part of life and there is nothing we can do about it, except preparing ourselves and dealing with them.