003 | OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
IT’S REALLY NOT THAT BAD.
Take a second and think about this question — what is the common denominator beneath every single negative event that has ever occurred in your life? Answer: you came out alive on the other side.
That fact alone should be enough to change our perspective about things that haven’t gone our way. As long as we are still breathing, we have a fighting chance. But the value of that insight can only be fully appreciated when we first accept the following truths: success is not final, and failure is not fatal. The game never ends, and is a constant cycle of feedback and response. Once we understand that life keeps moving to the beat of our own drum, then we can welcome the joy that comes along with pain.
With every experience we have, the world offers us honest feedback about ourselves — sometimes immediately, sometimes with time. Adversity exposes someone to who they really are. It is our response to feedback that shapes our perspective and ultimately, brings light to the dark.
Of course, ‘positive-thinking’ in our reaction to negative circumstances is easier said than done. But that’s not really what we are talking about here anyways. What if we take away the distinction between positive and negative experiences? What if every experience was just that — an experience? If we’re able to remove the emotion behind considering any type of feedback as positive or negative, then we can peel the curtain back to see the experience for what it truly is and choose an appropriate response.
No footballer has reached the heights of the sport without experiencing a great deal of suffering throughout their career. It’s exactly these hardships that mold players into the final product of themselves. Adversity causes some men to break, and others to break through. For every difficult moment, we have the opportunity to build ourselves up and improve upon the lessons learned.
If you are a sculptor building a statue, every cut you make creates a positive or negative effect on the design. When we face adversity, it is like chipping away at that blank stone. We get to choose the placement, angle, and depth of every cut we make. Each one offers us instant feedback that dictates our next move. Eventually, based on our response to that feedback, our work begins to resemble that of a beautiful masterpiece or a random jagged-edged rock. But the wonderful part is that even a random jagged-edged rock can be sculpted into a beautiful masterpiece over time.
Failure is not fatal, unless you forfeit. When you are sitting around failing to try, someone else is out there trying to fail —challenging themselves, learning new things, and failing as fast as possible. Because as they fail, they learn, and adjust their course to make sure their path is always forward.