when the going gets Tough, or when you’re having a tough time dealing with the present state of affairs, the most common tendency in all of us is to define the ‘other side’ in our heads and then to marvel at how green the Grass looks/looked on that side. from thinking wistfully about the carefree days of our childhoods to envying our parents’ seemingly blissful retired life, and from wondering how your peers seem to have it so easy to reminiscing about the fun times you had on a job in the past, our brains create mental pictures of a perfect time and place that is far removed from our present. as we try our best to make sense of what seems like an inflection point in our lives, our minds seek comfort in imagining scenarios that are far removed from the situations we find ourselves in.

but more often than not this wishful thinking – instead of helping us cope with the stresses and strains of the moment – leaves us hating the realities of our present even more viscerally. instead of putting things into perspective, looking at the ‘other side’ makes us feel as if every action we took leading up to this moment was wrong. would it help if we focused on what makes the grass on the other side greener and did what it takes to turn our grass into the same shade as well?