How Do YOU Handle Adversity?

How do you handle adversity? In a recent reading, the author made a claim that reaching one’s potential is linked to the way you handle adversity. Interesting.

“Adversity isn’t always bad. Actually, adversity can be something to be thankful for as (God) may be using it to strengthen you.” Winston Churchill said, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

“If you allow difficulties and challenges to frustrate, intimidate or discourage you, you will never overcome them. But if you face them head-on and press through the adversities you encounter, refusing to give up in the midst of them and moving forward with a heart of gratitude (there’s that word gratitude again), you will develop the skills and determination needed to be everything you were created to be and experience everything God intends for you.

How often are the things you think are difficult or a challenge directly related to your mindset? If things don’t go your way do you feel intimidated? Do you need to always be in control and don’t handle disagreements or different points of view well? What are your reactions when things just aren’t going your way?

I do think our reactions to adversity have a lot to do with our experiences growing up. I also think our reactions have a lot to do with how old we are which means how much experience we’ve had on life’s journey. What if we took the attitude that all adversity, when mastered, becomes an opportunity as quoted by Churchill? How different would your life look? Instead of adversities being a negative, what if your mindset was one of opportunity?

When the disappointment of not making a specific sport team, or not making the high school choir, or not making the debate team, or not getting on the Dean’s List, not getting the job, the raise the promotion you thought you deserved or not…. whatever it might be, what if we looked for the lesson? What if we looked for what is next? What if we learned something so the next time we were more prepared? What if we came away understanding more what we needed to do to reach that goal? What if we were open to a new path other than the one we had planned? Hmmm…

Gratitude and mindset have so much to do with what we want to accomplish in our lives. For me, life is a constant testing of our personal resolve, our personal dreams, and goals, and our personal desire to be the best we can be. We will always be tested over and over and over again. How do you handle those challenges, those adversities? Do you learn and grow? Or do you blame, complain, and defend your actions never taking responsibility?

Success in life comes from taking responsibility, learning, growing, and a never give up mindset. Success in life comes from remembering the quote from Winston Churchill, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

Book Suggestion: The Power of Being Thankful by Joyce Meyer

Quote: Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
—Booker T. Washington