Don’t complain of the thorns in the rose; be grateful for roses among thorns (II)

Last time we began talking about the mix of the good and the bad in life. Life has many sides to it and many times we have do not have much choice but to accept each side life turns at and to us. Life can be  smooth, joyful and a great pleasure but life also  comes with pain, inconvenience and adversity. We all love and cherish the good times when things go our way -at such times we enjoy life, we are enthusiastic and have great hopes about the future.

However in life we will also encounter challenges, calamity and crisis.

When we have the right attitude to and in adversity, it becomes a stepping stone to advancement and promotion.

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Roses are beautiful flowers which symbolizes love but to want to pick them without the risk of being pricked by thorns is not being realistic. We must not just be content with the good life but we must also learn how to handle the unexpected hard times when they rear their ugly heads.

We must learn to effectively navigate our way through the storms of adversity and land our ship successfully on the shores of our dreamland.

“Today everyone faces mounting adversities, and these increasing demands on human capacity require us all to develop new capacity in the form of higher-level skills and accessible wisdom.” Paul G. Stoltz

Adversity is inevitable and our attitude and response when it shows up will determine how far we will go in life.

“Like a sculptor chipping away at the marble, adversity is what chips and crafts us into who we are and what we become.” Nick DiNardo

Adversity or negative circumstances can either paralyze us or propel us to rise beyond it to greater heights. Adversity is usually a temporary bus stop on our way to our final destination. Nobody in his right mind lives in the bus stop; it is just a transit point, a place of change.

Great men have had to pass through the “bus stop of adversity” on their way to purpose, prominence and power and we cannot be exceptions. Adversity is a bridge everyone has to cross. No human being is immune to  adversity. Adversity is an integral part of our journey to success.

“Truth be told, you will never really know just how strong and adamant you are unless adversity strikes. Then you learn courage, you build resilience, you learn to persevere, you build character.” T. Whitmore

We can do certain things to manage, maximize and overcome hard times. The first thing is never to lose hope. Things can and will always be better.

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

We must take responsibility for our own lives. When things get rough we must avoid the tendency to blames others for our predicament. If we are to come out if tough times quickly and unscathed we must avoid playing the blame game.

 

To be continued