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Thanks For The Lessons |
| Posted on Jun 25 2009 |
No-one likes a problem. Dark times and set-backs are rarely welcomed. Being under attack is not a state most rational beings would see as a positive one.
But the way I see it, there is always more than one way to look at things, and not being known for my rational thinking, I have decided to come from a different perspective.
If I look back, I can see that as I have gone through life, it was always through the most challenging times that I learned the most, I grew as a person, and I developed one of the useful attributes a human can possess. Resilience.
The ability to get back up everytime I’ve fallen down is my favourite quality about myself (I don’t mind self-congratulation from time to time, we beat ourselves up often enough to make it a necessity). It’s also one of the qualities that I most admire in others. Some of my all-time heroes – Victor Frankl, Helen Keller, Superman – are all people who found the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
Life is hard sometimes, we all experience adverse conditions, and things happen to us and those around us that just don’t seem to make sense at all. There are people who will try and knock us down, and make life difficult for us, and sometimes we’ll stumble and fall, that’s just a fact of life.
Yet as Confusius put it: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall”.
Bounce-back-ability, I call it.
I’ve recently been trying to master wakeboarding, a sport, like many, requiring balance, strength, stamina, skill, and quite a bit of nerve. After a particularly nasty fall one week, it would have been easy to give up, to say “it’s not for me”, or “it’s not worth the risk”, and I have to admit I was tempted. Yet I would have missed out on so much fun and reward.
Getting back on the board was a milestone in terms of my progress. It required a fair degree of pain (in the shape of fear), and some gentle persuasion from those I trusted. I would be lying if I said it was easy.
The weird thing is I am almost grateful for the fall now. My confidence grew more from overcoming the challenge, and I was stronger as a result.
It’s that old cliche – that which doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.
Each time we refuse to be beaten, every time we come under attack and rise above it, we build emotional muscle, in the same way as if we were training our bodies. We become stronger, more resilient, more able to cope with whatever life throws at us.
I’m now grateful for all those challenges, the accidents I had along the way, and even to the bullies who tried to knock me down. We have to go through the dark times to see the light, and when the sun does come out, you just soak it all up.
So, go ahead, push me, I’ll bounce back.
Knock me down, I’ll get up again.
And each time, you just make me stronger.
Last changed: Jun 25 2009 at 2:32 PM
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