Adversity is Part of Life! Agree?

Dear loving people,

“Everything that happens to us leaves some trace behind; everything contributes imperceptibly to make us what we are” says Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and if you asked me, I strongly agree with him.

Adversity is part of life and a starting point to overcoming them is to be aware of, and accept that adversity is inevitable in life. To avoid or resist it will only make it persist. Everywhere you look in the world there is unmistakable struggle. There are floods, tsunamis, wars, and calamities of all types. Even within your own circle of family and friends there is death, loss and tragedy. Although pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Good enough, there are countless stories from those who overcame adversity and registered resounding success in their lives that serves as examples that inspire, motivate, and encourage others to never give up, but instead reach for their hopes and dreams regardless of their current limitations or challenges.

If achieving goals were easy, everyone would do it quickly and without difficulty. Even if your vision is clear and you can articulate a detailed purpose, there are always obstacles in the path. It's the joy and journey of clearing those obstacles that makes life rich, and helps people feel truly accomplished when they finally reach their apex of success.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” says Winston Churchill. Do you know that Winston Churchill is regarded by many as the gold standard in leadership practice? He suffered adversity and failure throughout his life. He had an unhappy childhood, an emotionally abusive relationship with his father, and secured zero educational achievement. He rose seamlessly in government before crashing like a comet falling from the sky during World War I. He recovered politically before taking a series of wrong decisions during the 1920s as Chancellor of the Exchequer in charge of Britain's finances. The 1930s was a decade of public humiliation as Churchill appeared to back all the wrong causes. Even after his finest hour during World War II, Churchill was unceremoniously ejected from office in 1945. Back as Prime Minister in the 1950s, Churchill finally resigned after failing to convince President Eisenhower to hold a Big Three summit about the Cold War. He also experienced personal crises such as losing two children and suffering financial pressures.

For most people, this level of failure, humiliation and rejection would destroy them. But Winston Churchill weathered all the storms, learn from this adversity and improve his skills. He once said that "success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm."

In each of our lives, we all have our own set of obstacles and setbacks in life. Things that are limiting and presents what seems like insurmountable barriers. Your task as somebody on the quest for success is to learn, develop and appropriate principles that will help you not only manage and overcome adversity, but also rise to higher levels of success never imagined.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes. - John Ruskin