Life is often thought of as a journey, and it’s said that difficult roads often leads to beautiful destinations. Nobody no matter how privileged can have a perfect life. We have all been given our own share problems to deal with, our own battles to be won. Adversity has often shown to be the reason for finding greatness in our history.
But what is it that makes some people find greatness in difficult situation while it makes others into selfish and greed filled monsters. Our very approach to face our struggles or difficult circumstances makes most of the difference. Adversity often helps us come face to face with our own weaknesses, making us a better version of ourselves. We often end up finding our own strengths and capabilities in the process. Facing difficult situation makes us flexible and capable of changing ourselves as per the demand of the situation. We get to know what we are really made of.
It is when we work hard and tirelessly to over-come our circumstances that we see growth of character. Every struggle we over-come makes us a more confidant person. Nothing in this world can make one wise as quickly as adversity. History and popular culture is filled with examples of people who fought their circumstances to achieve their goals, and achieved greatness in the process. Many famous personalities ranging from the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein to JK Rowllings, jim carry , Oprah winfrey have shown that adversity no matter how grave can be overcome.
We all face hard times and unfortunate circumstances, situations and times when life was is less fair to us than to everybody else. In those times we often feel like comparing our life’s lows to other people’s highs .we blame people, situation, destiny even god at times. And that is precisely the attitude that gets us stuck in the rut, an endless cycle of negativity.
Times of adversity demand us to rise to new challenges and modify our habits and behaviors. Our mind is a powerful tool; it believes what it’s fed. Charlie Chaplin — a comedic genius, the man who made millions laugh without even saying a word had a very difficult childhood. Born in London, England Chaplin was left to survive on his own before he was even 10 years due to his father’s early death and his mother’s illness. He survived by doing odd jobs at workhouses with minimum pay and long hours before realizing that he had the capability to make people laugh. The rest as they say is history. For a person who saw so much unhappiness he chose to become an antidote to it. This was a beautiful outcome of adversity when came face to face with resilience.
In today’s world where people only display their accomplishments, it is important to start a dialogue about the importance of adversity. We need to make the new generation aware that adversity is an integral part of life and it’s in our own hands weather we let it make us bitter or better. The moment we start taking life’s struggles as a challenge is the moment we start to find our own strength. Nothing worth having ever comes easy, that is what makes the fruit of our labor taste so sweet.
Henry ford once said- “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it”.
by Tanya Chopra
