Hard Times Hone Human Excellence
I just finished an incredible conversation with a friend of mine who is experiencing some very challenging times physically and financially. In the past two years he has suffered two severe injuries. Two years ago he shattered his pelvis in a skiing accident, which required 18 months of healing and rehab. Then four months ago a bicycling accident resulted in a severely broken hip. This required emergency surgery followed by another round of long and arduous rehab.
In addition to these physical challenges, while putting three kids through school he experienced a default on the sale his successful business that had been built over the past ten years and had to place a start-up business on hold while focusing his full attention on healing his hip. All of this during one of the toughest global economic conditions many of us has ever witnessed. I don’t know about you but in my mind I think this set of conditions qualifies as “hard times”.
Now many of you may be thinking, “wow, I bet that was a depressing visit.”
Well, I am happy to report that I left this interaction invigorated, inspired and uplifted by this courageous soul that I call my friend. Through out our entire conversation I did not hear one slight hint of misfortune, not even an inkling of despair, doom or gloom.
Quite the opposite…although we were very forthright about the reality that my friend and his family are facing, we focused our conversation on all he was learning from his set of circumstances. He excitedly shared various profound and practical insights, inspired ideas, uplifting music and compelling goals that were emerging from the challenges he faced.
This amazing guy also updated me on the progress he is making in his rehab. His strength, flexibility and range of motion had improved significantly over the past few weeks. He has retired his crutches and is now moving about gracefully with only a bit of assistance from a lightweight aluminum cane.
One of the things he was most enthused about is that he was able to resume his trips to the gym to begin working out again. During his most recent workout he successfully achieved a new personal best bench press. Not only that, but he also immediately set the bar even higher with plans to achieve a new personal best within a few months.
While I was driving home from this visit, tears of appreciation and awe began to flow down my cheeks. My friend reminded me of something that is near and dear to my heart – he reminded me that HARD TIMES HONE HUMAN EXCELLENCE!
My friend could have chosen to whine, complain, agonize over some worst case doom and gloom scenarios, worry about his seemingly insurmountable challenges, haplessly sit around hoping someone would come and save him from his circumstances. But instead, he chose to fill our interaction with positive energy and uplifting words and phrases like, learning… excitedly sharing… profound insights… inspired ideas… uplifting music… compelling goals… progress being made… improved strength, greater flexibility… expanded range of motion… successfully achieved a new personal best… immediately set the bar even higher… plans to achieve…
It takes a rare individual to embrace hard times as a perfect catalyst to hone skills, grow capability, expands capacity and increase self-confidence. My friend is one of these rare individuals. I am grateful for his presence in my life.
May the hard times you encounter inspire you to find and express your very best!
Jim M Anderson
Samurai of Self-Development
