Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
Life is a journey full of learning curves and experiences that shape how we think, feel, and act. Everyone would love to live every day, facing absolutely no challenges or difficulties, but a completely smooth path is often one devoid of learning.
That’s why people need to accept the harsh realities of life, which are necessary for character development. This list contains all of those eye-opening truths that folks often tend to ignore but need to accept in order to thrive. Some facts might be harder to accept than others.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Working hard and doing the right thing often doesn't ensure a good life at all. The biggest pieces of s**t barely ever face consequences and live better lives than people who are actually good and deserving of good things.
RELATED:
#3
Being attractive will help you be more successful than being smart or working hard will.
Even if you try your best to stay strong and get through the difficult stages of life, there might be moments that overwhelm you. According to psychologists, this is something that everyone faces at some point, and it’s important to pay attention to such feelings in order to figure out how to cope better with them.
Many of the folks in this list learned tough lessons as they got older and had more life experience. Age provides people with more opportunities for learning and growth through exciting and difficult experiences. Rather than trying to run away from such moments, it’s important to accept that they’ll happen and embrace the learning curves.
#4
Took me a long time to fully understand that people are mean on purpose haha this was especially hard to understand when it came to my friends and family… “wait..they KNOW they’re hurting me? And.. they DONT care?”
🤯.
As many people on this list pointed out, some of the harshest truths to accept were that many times you have to rely on yourself for help, that working hard doesn’t always bear the fruit you want, and that life isn’t always fair. It might seem scary to think of such concepts, and oftentimes, folks can’t bring themselves to accept the truth.
This rejection of reality can sometimes affect people’s mental health and cause them to feel incredibly low. It can lead to things like burnout, difficulty finding meaning in life, not engaging in enjoyable activities, or wanting to isolate oneself. This can end up causing even more problems for a person, which is why they need to face up to the harsh truths of life and tackle them head-on.
#8
Being good at something will get you far but knowing the right people will get you much further.
Life is all about facing challenging moments, learning from them, and applying them to the next situation we come up against. It might seem ironic, but the best way to do that is by failing. Although nobody ever wants to fail, each setback is an opportunity for growth and character development.
Failure can teach us more about life than anything else can really do. It’s clear to see that for many people on this list, a bump in the road helped them accept the harsh life lessons they’re sharing. That’s why, instead of understanding all these truths in theory, it’s important you put them into practice and be okay with failing along the way.
#10
Family can be your worst enemies.
#11
You always have to clean. All the time. I hate it. I’ve never been an organized person.
#12
That accepting responsibility is the only way to make real change in your life. People who blame anything and everyone for their problems ultimately put the responsibility outside their realm of power and therefore cannot enact change. So if you really truly want to bring change into your life, it starts with you. This was a harsh truth for me to accept.
Everyone wants to cope and get through life in the smoothest way possible, but as you’ve probably noticed from this list, that might not always happen. Even though these harsh realities shared by folks might scare you, they should never stop you from trying. That’s why experts say that when people feel fearful of life’s challenges, they should first work on their attitude toward the problem.
Rather than going into a negative spiral, it’s important to replace such ideas with more positive or neutral thoughts. Overthinking often uses up one’s mental energy and can make it even tougher to concentrate. The best thing to do is to invest one’s time and resources into solving the things that can be solved and accepting the situations that can’t be.
#13
Working hard and/or having a lot of intelligence doesn't mean anything in most of the working world if you don't have confidence and strong communication skills, or be able to fake exuberant extroversion.
Most people in charge know how to charm people. You just hope they are ethical and have a good work ethic too, but that is not always the case.
DennyS (denzoren) 9 months ago
If you can't network and be a people person, you'll be stuck....speaking to myself basically.
#14
As Captain Picard said “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life”.
#15
No matter how nice I am to some people, I may not be able to make them nice to me back. Some people just aren’t nice and that’s not my fault 🤷🏼♀️.
No matter how tough life gets, you must realize that it also gets better. Sometimes, when a person’s caught up with challenges, it can be hard to remember the good times, but it is important to still try and do so. Finding a balance between tough and wholesome moments can help people get a new perspective on life.
To help you do that, we’d love for you to think of one harsh truth and one wonderful aspect of life. Do share them in the comments so that everyone can learn from your experience.
#16
You can love someone so much and they don’t feel the same.
HardBoiledBlonde 9 months ago (edited)
"I can't make you love me if you don't, you can't make your heart feel something it won't.." ~Bonnie Raitt
#17
Loneliness is the default setting. Connection has to be worked for and is always temporary.
#18
That unless you are almost aggressively confident, ruthless and lack compassion you will rarely reach the top of the career ladder.
That you can do the right thing and the correct thing and still lose.
Child of the Stars 9 months ago
I really love that last line. I control my behavior and my choices, I do not control the outcome.
#20
Friend groups separate and go their own ways. People you got used to seeing daily you may be lucky to see once every six months.
#21
1. You can be an absolute beast, but still lose.
2. Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
George D 9 months ago
Genetics is strange. I know more people that don't communicate with their siblings than do. Aside from coming from the same parents, they have nothing in common and, in some cases, actually dislike each other. My most cherished family member is my step-grandfather. No blood relation to anybody in my family but the one person who was the rock in the family and the source of most of my fondest childhood memories.
#22
Our Parents can never grow into who we need them to be because they simply don't want to.
Alexia 9 months ago
That's so sad. And I, as a child, didn't need anything extraordinary. I needed to be shown love, affection, encouragement (instead of insults and punishments). I needed to see that they loved and respected each other (instead of constant yelling and arguing). I guess that was too much to ask.
#23
That traumatizing death exists, let alone death itself... along with the uncertainty of what comes after.
how incredibly harsh and unfair nature can be.
and to imagine, this applies to all living beings.
meeeeeeeeeeee 9 months ago
traumatizing death is more likely to happen to other animals than humans...also, can it be traumatizing? Trauma is a word about past events. You can't be traumatized by your own death if you're dead.
#26
"People aren't inherently good, they are inherently selfish." - I think it's the Scarecrow in the batman comics or old cartoon who said this.
Child of the Stars 9 months ago
Personally, I think people are both. But I also don't believe that true altruism can exist. We can't do anything for others without having at minimum the expectation that it will make ourselves feel better.
#27
Life is a series of opportunities that you choose to take or leave. That fear often plays a heavy hand in holding back. Ultimately life is exactly what you make of it. That’s a lot of pressure.
#28
I'd be the one doing the cooking and washing the dishes for nearly every meal, every day, for the rest of my life.
#29
That ur parents are getting older. They just want to experience the joys of life with you.
H Word 9 months ago
Reminds me of Goofy from the film, A Goofy Movie. Where Goofy and his son Max are arguing, and Max says, "I'm not your little boy anymore, Dad! I've grown up!! I've got my own life now!" And Goofy just responds with "I know that! I just wanted to be part of it!" I think that is the fear of a parent when their child(ren) starts growing up.
#30
1. You gotta learn to cope with life alone. You’ll lose a lot of friends as you get older, and you wont always have someone that can help you out when you are struggling. The first statement also applies to when youre trying to date, you gotta be comfortable with being alone before you put yourself out there, otherwise you might settle or seem desperate.
2. C**ppy things can happen for no reason, even to good people.
3. Karma is real, so try not to hurt people.
#31
There's some really dark stuff lurking around inside of even the most outwardly innocent people. Civility is a thin veneer over our inner savagery, as no matter how many suits and ties and times someone goes to church or whatever, we still occasionally love to participate in any excuse for a public execution.
Annabel Again 9 months ago
I believe that there’s often confusion about this point because different people are savage and different ways, and some people are so clever at rebranding or masking the Savage part of himself that maybe they’re not even aware of it themselves. And certainly not a parent to others. There are many many ways to be savage. And it doesn’t just mean engaging in physical violence. I believe that some people are so repressed that it leaks out in small wait instead of all it once bursts. Everybody has a point where they snap and that’s neither good nor bad, in and of itself; it’s just nature. Everybody has fury on the inside somewhere.
#32
That nobody really cares about you. people only come around because of what they can get from you.
#33
The more you improve yourself,the bigger target you become.
What do you think ?
Earonn - 9 months ago
Tbh, I'm getting a bit fed up with these "all other people are sooo selfish and only interested in themselves". Whoever says that is the "other people" to me - does that mean they are that s****y, too? In 53 years my experience was that some people are really bad, some are selfish, some are just not interested in what I do/am, and most are nice and friendly in various degrees. And they all care about their own life, as they should, because they are not lackeys to me. The person who was just a bit friendly towards you on the bus the other day - where was their selfishness? Hint: nihilism doesn't make you mature, mysterious and sophisticated.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 9 months ago
II agree. Being friendly doesn't cost ANYTHING and it can make people's days just that little bit better. Even if you do it out of some deep-set self-interest (aka: you like the feeling you have when you see people smile back), it STILL makes them feel better, too. I get really annoyed by the "constant loser narrative", the constant 'everyone is mean and the world is a black pit'-thing. It's simply not true that it cannot be changed. Just do whatever little thing you can do to improve things. Pick up trash, or smile, or let someone in line go before you, or help someone over the road. Or make faces at a random toddler until they grin. Whatever helps will also make you feel better about yourself. And look at that - most people will smile back! (but obviously check if smiling is appropriate ;-) )
Load More Replies...
Earonn - 9 months ago
Tbh, I'm getting a bit fed up with these "all other people are sooo selfish and only interested in themselves". Whoever says that is the "other people" to me - does that mean they are that s****y, too? In 53 years my experience was that some people are really bad, some are selfish, some are just not interested in what I do/am, and most are nice and friendly in various degrees. And they all care about their own life, as they should, because they are not lackeys to me. The person who was just a bit friendly towards you on the bus the other day - where was their selfishness? Hint: nihilism doesn't make you mature, mysterious and sophisticated.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 9 months ago
II agree. Being friendly doesn't cost ANYTHING and it can make people's days just that little bit better. Even if you do it out of some deep-set self-interest (aka: you like the feeling you have when you see people smile back), it STILL makes them feel better, too. I get really annoyed by the "constant loser narrative", the constant 'everyone is mean and the world is a black pit'-thing. It's simply not true that it cannot be changed. Just do whatever little thing you can do to improve things. Pick up trash, or smile, or let someone in line go before you, or help someone over the road. Or make faces at a random toddler until they grin. Whatever helps will also make you feel better about yourself. And look at that - most people will smile back! (but obviously check if smiling is appropriate ;-) )
Load More Replies... You May Like 43 Horrifying Things People Have Woken Up To That Still Haunt Them People Are Sharing The Things They'd Learned Too Late In Life, And These 51 Ones Are Eye-Opening 41 Intriguing “Today I Learned” Facts That Show How Little We Actually Know (New Facts)
Dominyka Proškėnaitė
Viktorija Ošikaitė
Evelina Šiukšterytė
Related on Bored Panda
