On Being Challenged
January 27, 2012Friday morning message
January 27, 2012
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” - Samuel Johnson, biographer, essayist, lexicographer and poet
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.” - Nelson Mandela, the first President of South Africa to be elected in a fully-representative democratic election
On Wednesday I told you I’d be ripping off something Dan Kennedy recently wrote about being challenged.
Not in the sense of someone wanting to fight him, of course, but in dealing with what life sends your way.
Here’s part of what he wrote:
To hope for a challenge-free set of circumstances is, I believe, only a guarantee of deep, bitter disappointment and depression.
To know that you are superior to most mere mortals when it comes to confronting, coping with and conquering challenges is seen by those mere mortals as outrageous arrogance – but needs to be your simple reality.
Paraphrasing billionaire Andrew Carnegie: in his private thoughts, the exceptionally successful man in good control of himself and his life knows that he is vastly superior to all other men.
Of course, such a belief system is dangerous and fraught with peril in many ways. It must be consciously managed.
Having this is somewhat like having a rattlesnake you’ve raised from birth as a pet; you can never forget, even for a minute, its true nature.
But have it, one must, as a means of achievement. As the counter-balance to endless challenge.
He then goes on to cite that Henry Ford was told by the experts that his idea for an automobile engine could not be safely and affordably built.
Walt Disney was told, again by the “experts”, that it would be impossible to turn hundreds of thousands of acres of Florida swampland into an amusement park.
As soon as it became known he was buying up land, prices would skyrocket, opportunistic buyers would swoop in, and the cost of the project would be beyond reason. Plus, it would be equally impossible to buy hundreds of thousands of acres from thousands of different owners in secret.
We all know the outcome for Ford and Disney, don’t we?
It is the combination of our response to challenges and who and what we choose to challenge that writes our autobiographies.
Do you easily accept “no”? Do you fight hard for “yes”? And I don’t mean necessarily fight against others. I mean fight against yourself also.
DK says that as a nation, America has had, at best, arguably, one very brief peacetime. Otherwise this nation has been at war its entire existence – because it is the most successful nation, the nation striving to do the most, the over-achiever, thus challenged the most.
Same thing for people. The successful and success-striving person will be at war, virtually his entire existence. The autonomy-valuing person will be challenged the most.
You know who understood this well? Bruce Lee. And next week, we’ll talk about his challenges and how he overcame them.
Have a great weekend.
Now go out and conquer the world,
Sifu DW for TeamUMAA
www.unifiedmartialart.com
“Using Martial Art As a vehicle for personal growth and development”
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P.S. I’ll be posting the long talked-about video on the UMAA Facebook page later today.
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