Being A Victor

 

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“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor E. Frankl

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I have learnt over time that dealing with and overcoming adversity is what makes us who we are. Every challenge and every difficulty we successfully confront in life serves to strengthen our confidence and ability to conquer future obstacles. Herodotus, the Greek philosopher, said, “Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have lain dormant in its absence.”

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been and we would never fly.

People who succeed and get to the other side of hard times do so because they discover a part of themselves they did not know they had. In such times when it feels  like their is only hardship, there is the  choice of how we respond . At difficult times, choose to to dig deep, to learn, change and grow stronger.

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Look at your challenges today as opportunities to develop, becoming a better, stronger, a more rounded you. Become a victor of your life.

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‘Sometimes we pass through many ups and downs but they are there to make us stronger than we imagine. Don’t hate someone because of the challenges they pose on us. Just thank them for they are making you stronger.’
Patric Bensen