They say life is what we make of it. By the end of this post, I hope to have helped you decide whether that statement is true or not.

There is no doubt that life has its ups and downs. However, how we deal with them can sometimes make all the difference. Today I want to share eight harsh truths that I've come to learn from life. There's also a message in each that I think we can all learn from, and when applied, will improve our lives infinitely.

Some of these lessons may be old-hat for you. If so, look for ways to refine the idea to ensure your getting the most out of it. On the other hand, you may completely disagree with an idea or two and that's great! Let us know your thoughts so we can all learn from each other.

1. Friends Come and Go

When I was in high school, I always imagined spending most of my life with the same people. Then when I realized I had to move to college, that all changed. Once again, I made some close college friends but left them all behind when I moved from the UK to South Africa.

Friends will always come and go in your life; even though I'm back in the UK now, all my friends are in university around the country and not exactly in meeting distance. It can be a hard thing to accept, but many of the friends you spend time with now, might not be around in the next few years.

Important Lesson: There are an abundance of amazing people out there for you to meet and build relationships with. If you don't have many friends, don't stress, there are literally billions of friendship possibilities.

2. You Won't Always Get What You Want

I remember one Christmas when the only thing I had asked for was some second hand turntables for DJ'ing. I didn't ask for anything else so I was pretty sure I would get them. However, they didn't come and I ended up having to save for 10 months on my own in order to purchase them.

You won't always get what you want in life: people are going to be late, people will let you down, items you want won't always be available.

Important Lesson: Don't look for happiness in material possessions and if things don't go your way, learn to accept them. Life's too short to stay miserable.

3. Many People Will Love You, but Many Will Not

Whether you are a celebrity, a charity worker or just a normal guy, there are going to be people that love you and what you do, but there's also going to be plenty people that don't like you. There are many possible reasons such as jealousy, similarities to them, or just not being someone's 'type'.

Important Lesson: Not everyone is always going to like you, and that's fine. If people want to spend time talking about you then that is their problem. You are perfect as you are. You shouldn't need everyone to like you to have some form of self-esteem.

4. Nobody Can Transform Your Life Like You Can

Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't have to go up on stage, but we could just read a paragraph of a blog post and become a perfect public speaker? Or, wouldn't it be nice if our friends could do daring things, and we would benefit from them as well?

The support and help of others can only take you so far, you're going to have to do your own thing to make big changes in your life situation.

Important Lesson: Do things for yourself and learn to stand on your own two feet. People you rely on won't be around forever, and you don't want to have to use others as a crutch to get anywhere in life.

5. You Are Going to Fail

I built more than 7 websites before I created one that actually started making me any money. I even put hundreds of hours into my own company that I actually closed down last month. Whether it is exams, projects, companies, or even the odd pub quiz, there are times when you will fail to meet your goals.

As the saying goes - "Only those who are asleep make no mistakes".

Important Lesson: You can learn a lot from others, but it is your own failures that are going to teach you the most valuable lessons in life. Learn from your failures, embrace them, and use them to drive you on to success.

6. Rain Will Sometimes Cancel Play

On some occasions when you have your shorts on and you're ready for the beach, it's going to rain. Or, when you get to that first hole and you're ready to tee off - the clouds will open. Things aren't always going to go how you would like them to.

Important Lesson: Don't stress about the things that you can't control. Learn to live with things that happen. You can't change the past, but you can change how you react to things.

7. There May Be No Tomorrow

At least, not for you anyway. We never know what is around the corner, a car crash, a heart attack; heck...even the end of the world is possible. Let's face it, although we would all like to live till we are 70 years old, that's certainly not always the case. There will be one day that is our last.

Important Lesson: Make the most of each day. Make sure the people you care about actually know it, don't worry about little matters, just make sure you spend time doing the things you love.

8. Someone Else Will Always Have More

Whether it is money, partners, friends or even blog subscribers, there will always be areas where other people have more than you. That isn't to say you can't become abundant in whatever you want (i.e. someone always had more money than Warren Buffett until 2008 when he was noted to be the richest man in the world).

The wanting of more actually holds a very important lesson...

Important Lesson: Just because someone has 'more', that doesn't mean they are happy. Read the biography of any celebrity and they will tell you they enjoy their process of earning money, rather than what money can do to make them happy. In other words, focus on what you love, not what the thing you love can get you.

BONUS: Linking all the lessons here together is actually quite simple, and I can share the majority of what you need to know to enjoy life in a few simple bullet points:

* Live life for the moment
* Accept what is, even if things don't go your way
* Happiness is here, right now if you stop resisting and start accepting

I hope you all enjoyed my slightly unique take on the topic of improving your life. I would love to hear some harsh (but necessary) truths in the comments below!

他們說生活是由你自己創造的。看到帖子末尾的時候，我希望這郵件已幫助你判斷這種說法是對是錯。

毫無疑問，生活有起有伏。然而，有時候我們處理問題的方式能讓事情變得完全不一樣。今天我想和大家分享我從生活中學到的八項嚴峻的事實。我認為我們都可以從每項事實里學到一點東西，如果我們應用它，它將無限的改善我們的生活。

在這些經驗中，有些對你來說可能已經過時了。如果是這樣的話，那就想辦法提煉那些觀點，保證你可以從這些觀點中獲得最多的好處。另一方面，你可能完全贊同其中的一兩個觀點，那就太好了！讓我們知道你的想法，這樣我們才能相互學習。

1. 朋友聚散離合

我讀高中的時候，我總是想象著和志同道合的人共度生命的大部分時光。后來當我意識到我必須上大學的時候，一切都變了。我又在大學結交了一些密友，但是當我離開（大不列顛及北愛爾蘭）聯合王國到南非去的時候，我就離開了他們。

在你的生命中，朋友總是聚散離合；即使我現在回到了大不列顛及北愛爾蘭）聯合王國，我所有的朋友都是在國家周圍的大學，并不是在很近的距離。很難接受這件事，但是你現在花時間在很多朋友身上，可能過幾年他們就不在你身邊了。

重要的經驗: 你會碰到很多了不起的人，并和他們交朋友。如果你還沒有很多朋友，不同要太在意，實際上還有大把的機會交朋友。

2. 你并不總會得到你想要的

我記得在一次圣誕節，我唯一想要的一樣東西就是一些二手唱盤的DJ’ing。我沒有要求要別的東西，所以我非常確定我會得到它們。然而，我并沒有得到，我最后不得不自己節省了十個月才買到

在生活中你并不總是得到你想要的：人們會遲到，人們會讓你失望，你并不總可以得到想要的東西。

重要的經驗: 不要在物質上尋找快樂，如果事情進行不順利，那么就要學會接受。生命太短暫，不要停留在不愉快的事中。

3. 很多人會喜歡你，但也有很多人會不喜歡你

不管你是一位名人，一位慈善工作者，或只是一個普通人，肯定會有人喜歡你以及你所做的事，但也肯定會有很多人不喜歡你。可能有很多原因，比如嫉妒，和他們有相似之處，或者僅僅不是某些人的“類型”。

重要經驗:并不是每個人都會喜歡你，那很正常。如果人們愿意花時間來談論你，那是他們的事。你還是那樣完美。為了某種形式的自尊，你沒必要要求每個人都喜歡你。

4. 沒有人 能像你一樣能改變你的生活

如果我們不想上舞臺，但是我們可以讀讀博客帖子，然后我們也會成為一個完美的公共發言者，這不是很好嗎？或者如果我們的朋友做了一些大膽的事情，我們也可以從他們身上受益，這不是很好嗎？

別人的支持和幫助僅僅能讓你達到這種程度，為了讓你的生活發生巨大的變化，你必須得去做你自己的事。

重要的經驗: 為你自己做一些事情，并且學會自給自足。你要依靠的人不會永遠在你身邊，而且你不要想著必需利用別人作為拐杖達到你生活的某些成就

5. 你將會失敗

在我開始建立一個的確能讓我賺錢的網站之前，我就已經建了不止七個網站了。我甚至把很多時間都投入到了我的公司，然而事實上上個月我的公司就已經倒閉了。不管是考試，規劃，公司或者甚至是酒吧各種各樣的問答比賽，你總會有失敗的時候。

俗話說“只有睡著了的人才不會犯錯誤”。

重要經驗: 你可以在別人身上學到很多，但正是你自己經歷的失敗教會你生命生最有價值的經驗。從你的失敗中學習，欣然接受他們，并利用它們引領你走向成功。

6. 下雨有時候會讓你取消運動

有時候，當你穿好短褲正準備去海灘的時候，天就要下雨了。或者當你到達第一個球洞正準備發球的時候—烏云密布了。事情并不總是如你所愿的方向進展。
重要經驗: 你控制不了的事就不要強求。學會忍受發生的事情。你不能改變過去，但是你可以改變處理事情的方式。.

7. 可能沒有明天

起碼，對你來說不是這樣。我們永遠也不知道將會發生什么事，車禍。心臟病發作，憤怒……甚至是世界末日也是可能的。讓我們面對它，盡管我們都想活到七十歲，當然并不總會發生那樣的事。總有一天是我們的最后一天。

重要的經驗: 好好度過每一天。確保你關心的人都知道這一點，不要擔心小事情，只要保證時間花在做你喜歡做的事情就可以了。

8. 別人總會擁有更多

不管是金錢，搭檔，朋友或者甚至是博客用戶，其他人總會在某些方面擁有比你多。那并不是說你不可能在你想要的任何地方變得富有（比如：總會有人到2008年擁有的錢比曾被評為世界上最富有的渦輪巴菲特的錢多）。
想要更多其實蘊含了一個非常重要的哲理……
重要的經驗: 只是因為有些人有“更多”，那不意味著他們就開心。閱讀任何一位名人的傳記，他們都會告訴你他們喜歡賺錢的過程，而不是錢能做多少事使他們開心。換句話說，關注你喜歡的東西，而不是關注你喜歡的東西能給你帶來什么。 意外收獲: 把這里說的所有經驗聯系在一起其實很簡單，我可以和你分享你需要知道的大部分事情，讓你在幾個簡單的要點下享受生活：

* 充分享受此時此刻的生活
* 接受現實，即使事情未如你所愿
* 幸福就在這里，如果你現在就停止抵抗現實，并開始接受它

在改善你的生活這個話題里，我希望你們都喜歡我提出的一些稍微獨特的東西。我喜歡在評論下面聽到一些嚴峻（但必須的）的事實！