subject: How To Gain Confidence - Overcoming Obstacles [print this page] Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity. We sensibly try to make sure that nothing goes wrong with our lives. What's more, when things go wrong, we get very unhappy. "How could this happen to me?" we ask ourselves. A lot of people spend a large amount of their lives trying to prevent things going wrong.
This is not an unusual thing to do. After all it makes sense to dislike adversity. And it is perfectly understandable to be unhappy when things go wrong.
But what if we were to take a different attitude to adversity? What if we were to relish obstacles and difficulties?
After all, history has shown us that adversity creates opportunity. It is during times of difficulty that we make our greatest progress in life. We learn the most when overcoming obstacles. When life is going smoothly, we are not compelled to grow. It is only during challenging times that we get forced out of our comfort zone. And it is only outside of your comfort zone that you can truly grow as a person.
In other words, if it wasn't for adversity and obstacles, we wouldn't progress in life.
As the Chinese proverb says: "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials"
True strength is only borne out of difficulty. You cannot know your own strength until it has been tested. And challenges and problems are the way that we are tested. Just as the muscle gets stronger by being pushed to breaking point, so our resilience and ability grows by overcoming obstacles.
When you want to build confidence, you need to be strong. You need to be able to cope with problems that will inevitably come your way (that's life). So instead of cursing problems and adversity, we should actually relish them. We should welcome them. Overcoming obstacles is the path to greater strength and confidence.
