A story is told where a man comes across a butterfly struggling to get out of its chrysalis. Feeling sorry for the creature, the man decides to help. He cuts the chrysalis and sure enough the butterfly comes out easily. Surprisingly enough the butterfly us unable to fly; it is the struggle to leave the chrysalis that develops strength in the butterfly which would enable it to fly! Similarly, it is the challenges of life that brings out the best in young people and enables them to fly. This seems to be how life works.
When we look at successful people everywhere, we see that the most successful of them are people who have had to struggle. Many of them would have encountered many challenges before succeeding. One well known textile merchant, who now owns a chain of stores in Singapore and Malaysia, used to carry clothes items on his back and sell them from door to door when he was a young man. Another successful man, Dennis Wee ? the highest achiever in real estate sales in Singapore ? tells us in his book that he had to meet an overcome many challenges before arriving at where he is now.
Meeting challenges make the young person into a tough one when he overcomes those challenges that are presented to him. The challenges are often of the nature that he had never been prepared for. The sudden loss of his father when a young man was only 20, forced him to mature faster than an average 20 year old. He was forced to bring up a family. Bitter though he was that he had to sacrifice his youth, the young man took up the challenges and overcame them. Today his brothers and sisters are leading successful lives. All through his life, the man met many challenges, but because of the strength he had gathered when he was a young man, he overcame the challenges as if they were chaff.
Many times challenges do not appear to us before we keep away from them. It is for this purpose that there are so many adventure activities around us. It is fitting that young people part in activities that provide them with challenges, like rock climbing, sky diving, volunteer work and so on. Meeting and overcoming these challenges will make them tough and ready to face life when they are older. Just mugging and passing examinations will not prepare one for life. We must meet and overcome these challenges; for that is what life is all about. It is the young people of today who become the leaders of tomorrow.
For countries to continue too be successful, it is important that the young people learn to meet challenges and successfully overcome them. Though, it is human nature to cry out in despair at all the terrible things that happen to us, but if we look around we see that the most successful people in the world are those who had struggles to be successful, often standing against all odds. There is a lesson in the story of every successful man or woman alike!
Imagine the following scenario: A woman buys her lunch every day from a fast food outlet near her job. After some years, she finds herself 30 pounds overweight, and feeling unhealthy and lethargic. So what does she do? She chooses to bring a lawsuit against the fast food outlet, claiming that the food served there was the cause of her being overweight and in poor health.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The only thing more absurd than the story itself is the fact that it is not fiction. There are people who have sued fast food chains for causing their weight problems.
This is an example of one of the ways in which many of us spend enormous amounts of energy trying to deny the undeniable and universal fact that we are all ultimately responsible for our own choices and our own lives.
How much easier would we make it for ourselves if we could accept this fact rather than resist it? But how can we embrace the truth: that we are living the lives we choose to live, that we are enjoying or suffering the consequences of our own choices, and that blaming others for our problems and shortcomings is nothing more than a comfortable fantasy?
We must acknowledge the truth of our lives, however unpleasant this may be. If we are overweight, in a bad relationship, in a dead-end job, we need to accept that this is where we are, at this moment in time.
If we don't accept the truth of our situation, it will be impossible to figure out how we arrived in this place where we do not want to be. And there is usually only one reason: We made choices, and these choices were based on our thought patterns at the time that we made them.
The good news is that our thinking and our choices are changeable. Nothing is set in stone! There is time to right the wrongs.
We have a responsibility to ourselves and to the world to stop blaming those around us and start looking inside ourselves for the answers. Yet changing our thinking is only the first step.
Once we have mastered the art of positive, creative consciousness, we have the ability to make choices and choose actions that will enhance our lives and bring us closer to our purpose and destiny.
Imagine that a woman decided that she was unhappy with the extra pounds she'd gained after many years of eating fast food on a regular basis. Imagine that this woman took the time to really understand and accept that she ? and no one else ? was responsible for her eating choices. Having acknowledged this fact, she then decides to make the changes in her lifestyle to become the healthier, slimmer person she wants to be.
Instead of looking to blame someone or something else, she's now chosen to make the changes necessary in her thoughts and actions to create the life they want.
It is not an easy road, but it is the only worthwhile path to take. Personal growth depends on taking responsibility for your life, no matter how good (or bad) it may seem.
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