Resilience
Resilience is the fruit of endurance. It is that trait that keeps you focused on your goal despite rejections and denials of access. With a resilient mindset, you are always reminded of where you are headed. It is impossible to win in the journey of life without a resilient quotient possessed by your consciousness.
Robert Jordan said, "The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” The things that occur to us do not occur to disfigure us or twist us out of shape. They actually take some things from us and bequeath us with some things. This is the birthing of gain earned through pain. They happen to us in order to beat dross out of us, and leave us only with quality.
Have you noticed what nature does to some plants during germination? In the course of seeking sunlight during its earth journey through the soil, a plant may come in contact with objects that threaten to circumvent or bring an end to its sojourn.
But what does the plant do? It redirects itself towards sunlight via another route. It finds its way, but that experience leaves it with an indelible scar. That's the reason some plants are crooked in their form and structure.
The same happens to us when we are on the journey of finding ourselves. As we endeavour to connect to the outside from within us, we fight rejection and earn redirection. The potent tool we exhibit for which we do not give up is self-awareness. We are in tune with the person that we are within; we are in harmony with our essence because we had earned this consciousness through learning about ourselves from past experiences.
We often underestimate how strong we are and the only thing that reveals our strength to us are the problems and adversities that we encounter. We are able to bounce back when we are tried, and we are kept in proper shape. We are kept in check. Our strength is renewed in the realization of who we truly are.
Through resilience we are made tough. With resilience we go through the process to earn the proceeds. The painful process endues us with the strength to manage the proceeds at the destination. This is why it is important to celebrate every step of our journey. Through our failings and mistakes, we gain wisdom.
When we do not pay the price for something, we often waste it when it is bequeathed to us. This is the case with wealth inherited. The fourth generation of the Vanderbilt family of the United States frittered away the wealth made by the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was the richest man in America in his days. By the time it got to the fourth generation, they had hit rock bottom, in what is referred to as the "Fall of the House of Vanderbilt" [Wikipedia].
Paying the price through rising and falling, trudging along on rocky roads, going up and down the slope, meandering through crevices and tough terrains, sharpen our qualities so that when we earn the prize, we become great sustainers of value because of the resilience that has been built in us. This was the lot of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was an ordinary man who was toughened through the pains of failure, rejections and the enervating circumstances of life. He always bounced back from each failure. He kept going. I don't know of any story in contemporary history that better teaches resilience like that of Lincoln. He was a masterpiece of the values of endurance and flexibility.
The ability to bounce back after a loss, the strength to encourage oneself after getting beaten by life's threatening conditions, the gut to get back on track after a failure, is uncommon.
It belongs to those who are resolute and persuaded by the knowing and the clarity of a compelling vision. They may be hit, but they never stay down. The heat of painful failures bake them till they are baked, made whole and ready.
Men of great vision use pliancy to live their dreams and manifest what they envision. It's never easy to make potential actual, to make the intangible tangible, and to make abstract concrete.
One value that keeps us sane and focused despite the rocks that life through the school of hard knocks pelts us with, is resilience. If we have it, nothing can stop us in the journey of accomplishment. Add resilience to your arsenal today.
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