Adversity: A Friend Or A Foe?
By vishwa on General, Inspiration
October 8, 2010
I couldn’t write to you yesterday, as my computer broke down. SMPS of my computer failed, and the fuse of the junction box was also burnt. All these days any of my friends would turn up and rectify the error in my computer. But yesterday I found all of them to be busy, which left me with two choices: Either to pay a professional to repair or to fix the computer with my own hands. I made up my mind and took the latter decision. My wife assisted me in removing the junction box with a star screwdriver. We could make-out that the fuse wasn’t working anymore, for we bought a fuse and fixed the junction box. To our chagrin though the monitor, modem, and sound system all turned-on the CPU didn’t light up. We both then took the CPU to a hardware store and got the SMPS fixed.
You might be wondering about my rant over a puny issue such as this. But I did learn a great deal about computers yesterday, and the most important lesson was that adversity of any kind forces us to bring out the best in ourselves. Rosemarie quotes, “Adversity precedes growth.” A very true statement indeed. Stephen Covey, who wrote the self-help book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People quotes, “Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.” Indeed another true statement, but the irony is that we all do not embrace adversity even though it is of a small magnitude. I believe, viewed from a proper perspective, adversity is our friend than being a foe.
I am no way suggesting that I am leading an Utopian lifestyle where there is no place for errors, but I am saying that we can learn a lot of lessons from the adversity we face instead of fretting on it.
Here is a video which was posted in Ross Enamait’s website a few months ago. It is the story of Paul De Gelder. A shark mutilated his body severing his right hand and leg. In the video you can see his road to recovery just after 12 months after the attack.
Talking of adversity, I believe we will not get a better example than this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcENVN71sW8
