When i look at the world around me today, i see many great people. I see many motivated people. One thing i also see, are many people not dealing with their difficulties in life appropriately.
When i see people not dealing with difficulties appropriately, it is a natural instinct within me to ask myself "What makes this person react in such a way". Through my thoughts with certain observations in life, i have come to this analysis.
I believe throughout high school and primary school, we are constantly being praised or rewarded. Even when you don't pass a subject, you may still progress to the next grade. Even when we don't do something well, we are told "It is going to be okay", or we even sometimes receive the age old 'Participation Medal' for coming in last place.
I remember getting one of these for coming 6th out of 8th in a 100 metre sprint. It had a blue ribbon and had a big CONGRATULATIONS written on it...how happy i was to receive it.
I failed in my high school subjects many times but regardless of the failures, i was still progressing to the next year constantly. It made me feel like it was easy. I was only ever good at Ancient History and English mainly but the remainder of my subjects i would fail a majority of.
These are all examples of one HUGE error occurring in some of our schooling systems to this day. Some school's are failing to prepare us for life by bracing us for failures and are rewarding everybody for minimal effort. It leads to people feeling entitled to something regardless of their effort.
That is why i believe that when school is over and kids go into the real world, they struggle a lot. When they do something and are not rewarded for it, it really hits them hard. They are not used to having to work hard for something as in school, they had always been receiving something whether they gave a good or bad effort.
The people with that mindset, when carried over into a work environment, quickly realise that it is not effective in real life. They are not used to the harsh consequences of their failures and realise that they are not being rewarded for a bad effort! On top of that, they do not know how to use that experience to their advantage as they were never taught how to learn from it and how the failure can benefit them. As they do not know how to use these bad experiences to their advantage, it can lead to them feeling worthless, depressed or even worse.
This is why i believe from a very young age, putting someone through adversity is crucial and essential. By putting someone through adversity from a young age, it teaches us that you will fail yes, but you will learn from your failures and you can try again. The more you try, the more you may fail but the more you will learn until eventually, one day, after all your failures, you will finally gain the knowledge and skills needed to be able to succeed in your life. Your mind will continue to strengthen through failing and trying again constantly.
The path to succeeding will not always be clear but by understanding how to use failure to your advantage, it will only lead to positive outcomes.
We must be ready to face failure, face defeat and be willing to keep pursuing what we want regardless. If you want something, you must be willing to suffer for it, be willing to fail and learn from failures. Nothing worth having ever comes easy. I truly believe this because everything i have ever wanted, never came easy. The things i want still aren't coming easily.
So if you are going to take anything from this, understand the importance of having adversity and obstacles in your life. They are essential for your growth and truly strengthen your mind.
Embrace the difficulties consistently and watch yourself grow into someone you never thought possible.
