Surviving difficult times

“You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity…” ~ Epicurus

Relationships are not easy.  People disappoint one another, sometimes intentionally, but often without even knowing.  In many instances it is due to a break in communication, even the lack of communication.  We expect the other person to know what we are feeling or even what we want.

If you are strong enough to survive adversity, it is like reaching the top of a mountain where you can admire the view even though every muscle is aching.  The accomplishment makes you proud of one another and you grow closer. 

True friends

“Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend…” ~ Albert Camus

True friendship is scarce.  If you find a true friend, treasure the relationship.  One can have many acquaintances, but a heartfelt friendship is built over many years.  It is a reciprocal relationship where each person is focussed on the others’ needs.   

True friends are there for one another; they laugh and cry together.  True friends are not scared to praise or criticise because they know it comes from the heart.  True friends believe in you, encourage you, and don’t mind your call at 4h00 in the morning…  True friends are treasures.

If you have one true friend, you are rich and fortunate.

Purpose

"Purpose is what gives life a meaning..." ¬ Charles H. Perkhurst

Do you know what your purpose is?  Maybe you are not sure or still trying to find out what your purpose is.  We all have a purpose in life. 

Without a purpose you merely exist.  Once you have established what your purpose is, you can make the best of it and inspire others to find their purpose in life too.

Do something

“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something” ― Max Lucado

Do you feel as if you are doing everything by yourself while others are sitting around doing nothing?  Don’t feel despondent.  Draw them in by delegating some of the responsibilities.  Praise them and let them know that you are involving them because of special talents that they possess.  There is no I in the word TEAM = Together everyone achieve more.  When you allow people to make mistakes while they are learning, coaching and guiding them along the way, you are empowering them.

People are often just waiting for someone to take the lead. It might be that they don’t believe in themselves.  Motivate them to take the first step.   

  

A helpless bat

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air,
cannot take off from a level place.  If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and,no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air.  Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

Maybe life shunted you onto a sideline and you’re flapping around helplessly.  Just hang in there, soon you will find a slight elevation and take off again.

Miracles

Miracles are a retelling of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see... ~ CS LewisJohn

Tunnel vision, due to what we are going through, can prevent us from noticing miracles.  Miracles are there, we are just not noticing them anymore. 

The earth is spinning in the middle of nowhere and nobody is falling off...  Waves know exactly how far to roll onto the shore...  If you look at the quality of a photo compared to what the human eye detects, you stand in awe that the human brain can translate that into pictures with so much detail…  Every Spring trees bloom, come Fall, they lose their leaves…  A tiny newborn animal that stumble onto its wobbly legs minutes after being born and knows exactly where to find nourishment without a word being said… That babies don’t drown or suffocate in a mother’s womb…  That a heavy iron ship can float…

Open your eyes to the miracles… they’re there all the time.

Liberation!

Speak when you are angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret - Dr. Laurence J. Peter

Daily we are faced with people who rub us up the wrong way.  No matter how hard we try, there will always be people who are on a mission to bring out the worst in you.  It is as if they thrive on the sensation they create.  In the heat of the moment we don’t even realise that our buttons are pressed and often we speak our mind without realising what we are saying.  Defence mode prevents logic actions.  Often we replay the scenario afterwards and we feel guilty, sometimes even ashamed.

Just imagine you being aware of these triggers, consciously ignoring the attempts.  Liberation!

Who would you be?

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”  ― Marilyn Monroe

A professor asked a class of students: “If you can be anyone in the world, who would you be?”  Eighty percent of them responded that they wanted to be somebody else!  Only twenty percent of the class was happy to be who they were born to be. 

Wishing you were someone else is just going to make you resent your own circumstances even more.  Find consolation in the fact that you are so unique that people should rather aspire to be you.  Be a trend setter rather than a follower.  The world of business relies on our insecurities.  Marketers know we don’t want to be isolated; that we would sell our souls to be in.   

Sometimes we become someone else, just to realise one day that we don’t like who we became.  Remember who you are.  Remain true to yourself.

Choose hope

Once you choose hope, anything's possible… ~ Christopher Reeve

We always have a choice.  We can choose hope or despair, happiness or gloom, fight or flight.  When you feel despondent, try the alternative option. 

Brainpower power is powerful.  Once you choose hope, the mind sends out signals that everything will be ok.  It’s like programming yourself.  Before you know it, you will sing while you’re unhappy or laugh when you feel like crying. 

Courage is not the absence of fear

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear…” ― Nelson Mandela

You don’t have to wait to become afraid.  There is more than enough reason throughout the day to be fearful.  Listening to the news compare very well to watching a horror movie.  Newspapers are sensation busters.  Around the tea trolley or braai vleis fire it’s impossible to escape the discussions.  Did you hear… 

Being anxious does nothing for the crime statistics.  Live your life boldly.  Fear nothing or nobody.  Bravery is a frame of mind.