Are there good alternatives to “making the best of a bad situation?”

Question

Life is full of adversity, and people facing challenging life circumstances have to find a way to cope. I'm interested in single words, phrases, or idioms that capture coping strategies. For example:

Jane's job was absurdly repetitive and oppressive, but for her family, she tried to make the best of a bad situation.

Are there good alternatives to the coping strategy of making the best of bad situation?

Clarification: I am looking for alternatives, especially idioms, that don't involve words like good and bad.

Answer 1

to sweeten the bitter pill

To make something bad, unpleasant, or dissatisfactory easier to cope with, endure, or accept.

“Jane's job was absurdly repetitive and oppressive, but for her family, she sweetened the bitter pill as much as possible.”

I suppose you could also say that Jane had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill. In other words, she was left with no choice but to accept her lot (situation) in life.

Answer 2

1. To make lemonade out of lemons.

• Lemons are sour.
• Lemonade is sweet

To make lemonade out of lemons is to take something that is not so great and turn it into something good — ELU

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune. Lemons suggest sourness or difficulty in life; making lemonade is turning them into something positive or desirable — Wikipedia

^{I didn't find any dictionary definition but I've heard this idiom and used it myself.}

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2. To find a silver lining.

Silver lining: An advantage that comes from a difficult or unpleasant situation.

— Cambridge English dictionary

Example: Jane's job was absurdly repetitive and oppressive, but for her family, she tried to find a silver lining/ make lemonade out of lemons.

Answer 3

A search on Linguee.com for translations from a Spanish proverb, "a mal tiempo, buena cara", which literally translates to "to bad weather, [give] a good face", led me to the following idiomatic options:

• To make the best of a bad job: "But if these elections do go ahead - if the government insists on them going ahead - we, Labour, are determined to make the best of a bad job." — BBC

• To put a good face on things "Yet there they all were at Carnegie Hall, not only putting a good face on things but also doing their best." — NYTimes

Answer 4

make hay

For something that's a short verbal phrase, and almost in line with the single-word request of the question, try make hay.

From Merriam-Webster's definition of make:

[Merriam-Webster]
make hay
: to make use of a situation or circumstance especially in order to gain an advantage
// The candidate made hay of his opponent's scandalous behavior.

As a regular verbal phrase, it has the advantage of being more versatile than the other x of y or to x the y forms of similar sayings.

The example sentence in the question could be shortened considerably with this:

Jane's job was absurdly repetitive and oppressive, but for her family, she tried to make hay.

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An additional reference for this is from The Free Dictionary:

To take advantage; to make the most of an opportunity.
Chicago better be careful about turnovers, or you can be sure the defending champs will make hay in those situations.
We'll be able to make hay with so little traffic on the road.

 … This is a shortened version of the proverb make hay while the sun shines, which dates from the mid 16th century.

Answer 5

How about maintain a stiff upper lip. From Lexico:

a stiff upper lip: a quality of uncomplaining stoicism

This sort of mindset strikes me as an effective strategy for dealing with challenging life circumstances unlikely to change.