The Only Way Out
Life is a ride, and you want it or not, it does get bumpy. One moment everything could seem just perfect and the very next moment everything could crumble, every glorious success could turn into a miserable failure. There will be phases where you seem lost beyond cause.
But guess what? You’re not alone.
In periods of hardship even the smallest of the smallest problem could seem like a herculean task and when your perception towards things around you change, you might not feel like yourself. You feel like a completely different person. Everyone’s life around you seems smooth sailing except yours.
So, what is it that could be done in such circumstances?
In such times it’s always beneficial to take a page or two from the lives of people who have endured and overcome difficulties beyond our imagination.
A boy, during his childhood witnessed his step-father being physically abusive towards his mother almost everyday. But as helpless as he was, he could do nothing. He was too small to act and save his mother but he was determined to do something for his mother. But what could he do? The young boy started with a deck of cards (What?? Yes, you read it right).
How is this relatable you may ask. Keep reading!
He flipped the cards one by one and would do as many pushups as the number shown on the card. After he was done with every single card in the deck, he would shuffle all the cards and would start doing sit-ups and once he went through the entire deck he would shuffle them again and start all over again! The determined boy fell sick and got tired but that didn’t stop him from his crazy workout regime. His desire to save his mother, to give her a better life outweighed any physical pain he went through.
This boy is none other than Ray lewis, the famous American footballer, who is considered to be one of the greatest ever to play the sport. It was not because of sports he had started training, it was more of a mixture of pain, suffering and desire to protect his mother.
But, what is to learn from this?
We could all be constantly experiencing pain in our lives and all we can do is to learn to accept and channel the sufferings into a meaningful result. We all have capabilities that can be only realised when incidents which cause utmost grief or agony nudge us to push our limits. That is what Ray did, he let the grief and anger burning inside him guide him and achieve something that he may otherwise have failed to achieve.
Similarly, it is important to realise how each one of us could work wonders. There are phases when things don’t seem to work out and external factors could add to the worries, shattering us from the inside. But hey! That is your cue! Channel all your energy, grief anger towards your self development and give yourself one chance to rise up, breaking all barriers. And you will DO IT.
We need to adapt to whatever situation is in front of us and we have to find a way to push through the pain and discomfort and rise above the storms. No matter what difficulties one is going through, one can always ask why it has to be them every time. All we have is two options at such times- we can either choose to lead a life of choice or of chance. We can either take charge of our own life and make things happen the way we want or let things play out by themselves, watch things slowly slip out of hand and regret the decisions we made.
At every point of our lives, we have the choice to either accept, transform and adapt to the situations or to deny and just crib about them. We all have the instincts of what we need to do, all we have to do is listen to those inner-instincts and act strong and brave in the face of adversity and deal with it!
