When you pray for patience, do you think God just hands you patience or does he present you with the opportunity to learn patience?
Life can be harsh but without pain we can never grow. If everything were perfect just the way it was then why would we ever strive for growth? Pain is your friend not your enemy and definitely not something to be avoided.
Big or small the solutions to life’s problems are the building blocks on which we rest the foundation of who we are. It’s not what has happened to us or the hardships we have encountered in life that block our success but our inability to recognize or learn what they have to teach us.
The goal shouldn’t be to avoid problems or create a problem free environment. A bubble will always burst, leaving you exposed and unprepared. Instead we must endeavor to seek and understand the wisdom an obstacle might have to offer in order grow and evolve as beings.
If you are struggling with something right now, no matter how big it is, pause for just a moment, take a step back and look at it from another vantage point. Try to see what it is you are supposed to be learning from the situation. And by identifying the lesson to be learned, you will be half way to it’s solution.
For example, maybe you are currently in over your head and there is no way you are going to survive this on your own. Rather then desperately trying to fix whatever it is that’s gone wrong, realize that maybe this problem is really a lesson in how to ask for help.
Can you see how in understanding the bigger issue the solution presents itself freely? By acknowledging its purpose and asking for the help needed to accomplish whatever the task may be, the problem is solved and you are free to move forward.
It’s also important to understand that failure is simply a matter of having not yet identified the true nature of an obstacle.
So don’t be discouraged by “failure”. Even failure is a success. Maybe you succeeded in doing something other then what you had set out to do, but still something was accomplished. Was it not? Even if it’s only eliminating alternately non-viable avenues to your intended goal.
A very famous example to illustrate my point is a newspaper article in reference to the development of the light bulb. A reporter asked Eddison, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” And Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Only because he understood this was it possible for him to successfully create what has been called; “the most important invention since man discovered fire”.
Every great man or woman has a similar story of perseverance and acknowledgment of the utility of failure. And because of this their successes were inevitable, just like yours will be if you are able to learn the lessons that life has to offer you.
Obstacles are entirely of our own design. It’s how you choose to see a situation or thing that makes it so.
Obstacle or opportunity the choice is up to you.
Namaste Notes 