Finding Success in Hardship

There’s a facebook page I love,  called Humans of New York, random shots of New Yorkers and a sentence or two. The sentences are often surprisingly profound. 

One showed a pleasant middle aged woman, who had this to say:

"I'm trying to help my kids find their way."
"What's the most difficult part of that?"
"Letting them fail."

by Akvamarinka

Hardships as much as successes make us who were are and some of the qualities we love most about ourselves grow from dreams that didn’t happen and then what we did next… 

One of the commentators said: Though none of us would ever wish it for our children, a little hardship is not a bad thing. Teaches resilience and dispels entitlement.

by Abagail Ekhert

The other reality is that hardship, in one form or another, comes to all of us. If we first find it at 40, it feels much worse than having swum through it at 25.  Hardships, disappointments, small failures help build resilience, determination and self-knowledge.  Too much hardship can break us, that’s true, but the right amount of hardship can make us…  

And I’ll end with the excellent Michael Jordan quote: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

 

So when hardship comes, remember it comes to all of us and it can be fertile soil indeed!