What Will You Do with Challenges?

Troubles often have a way of taking over our lives and consuming our focus. We complain about our jobs, our spouses, our children, and the apparent lack of meaning in our lives. We get frustrated by heavy traffic, crowded shops and a chronic lack of time.

Because these things add to our already-elevated stress levels, it is natural to rail against them, to pine for a quieter, easier life. We yearn for deeper peace, greater fulfillment, and more money. We seek the things we believe will make us happy or give us that indefinable essence we seem to be missing.

But the presence of the things we don’t want and the absence of things we do want are not the problem. The problem is our belief that these things place a solid wall in our path.

We believe that the presence of such obstacles means that we are not meant to be happy, or successful, or peaceful.

We forget that the greatest measure of human achievement is not our accomplishments but the obstacles that must be overcome in the process, and the person we become as we do so. Without the inner process of growth and developing strength, the accomplishments are empty.

So, as you face today, rather than asking “why me” when challenges appear in your path, ask instead, “what now?” Rather than despairing over the problems in your life, consider what you can learn from them, and how they might inspire better choices and stronger action.

The challenges you face are as powerful as you decide to make them. They have the ability to make you miserable or determined. They can diminish your power or awaken it. They can hold you back or propel you to ever-greater levels of achievement. It all depends on how you choose to see them.