Why You Must Always Challenge Yourself

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”---Robert H. Schuller

Helen Keller found herself deaf, dumb and blind shortly after birth. These handicaps would have rendered many people completely useless for life but not Helen Keller. Today her story features prominently in human motivational seminars all over the world. Even with all her misfortunes, she still managed to leave her foot-prints in the sands of time. She learned to and became a successful writer. She wrote so well as to inscribe her name indelibly in the pages of history. Her life serves as evidence that “men and women are never defeated until they accept defeat in their own minds.” It is further proof that “there are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”  Ms Keller accepted her fate, challenged herself and became rich and famous. Our God is a just God. There is nothing he does without a purpose. He never makes mistakes as we humans do. If God takes anything away from you, He almost always replaces it with something better. Get close to blind people. Their senses of smell and touch are by far better than those with sight. If God takes away your legs, don’t despair. He will strengthen your hands as compensation. If he takes away your hands, he will strengthen your legs as compensation.

Ever heard of John Foppe? At some stage, he traveled to many cities of the world making motivational speeches. He became one of the highest-paid Motivational Speakers in the United States. Yet, he was born without arms. He shaved his beard, drove his car, cooked, wrote and did nearly everything you and I can do all with his legs. Amazing you’ll say but pause and reflect a while. Do you know that there are many people with arms and legs who still can’t make a living? These are people who have refused or neglected to challenge themselves.

Life is full of challenges. Everyone faces his or her own lot according to his or her own portion. The way you face your own challenges is what determines your success or failure. Life favors only those who are able to stay focused and determined even when the going gets tough. And, it sure gets tough sooner than later. Problems are not peculiar to you alone. All of us have our own share of problems. All my life, I have not come across anyone who is free from problems. At any point in time in your life, you are either thinking of a problem or solving a problem. Confronting and overcoming problems therefore is what life is all about. From this type of scenario, it appears that our problems are destined to come to an end only when we die. But, and this is a big “but”, no one has absolute proof about that. Even the dead may have their own problems. Who knows? However, the good news is, since you are reading this article, you are not yet dead. You can therefore face your own challenges squarely as many others have done and are still doing.

Why You Must Face Your Own Challenges

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”---Robert H. Schuller

Life is full of challenges. Everyone faces his or her own lot according to his or her own portion. The way you face your own challenges is what determines your success or failure. Life favors only those who are able to stay focused and determined even when the going gets tough.

It may interest you to know that:

John Bunyan was confined to a prison cell and sorely punished for his religious beliefs yet he was able to write one of the finest pieces of English literature “The Pilgrim’s Progress” while in prison.

Professor Wole Soyinka wrote “The Man Died” while in solitary confinement in Nigerian prisons during the civil war, punished for his views on the war.

Robert Burns was illiterate, abysmally poor and a drunkard to the bargain. The world benefited immensely from his thoughts which he clothed in fine poetry.

John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” when he was already blind.

Abraham Lincoln The 16^th president of the United States after failing many times in business and politics was so poor that he had to borrow money to pay the train fare to attend his own inauguration as president.

Beethoven one of the greatest music composers of all time lost his hearing before composing some of the master-pieces for which he is best remembered.

Thomas Edison was a partially-deaf school drop-out who became one of the greatest inventors of all time.

Florence Nightingale very weak, very ill and in her hospital bed managed to reorganize the hospitals in England.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32^nd president of the United States, suffering from infantile paralysis and in a wheel-chair managed to become one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had.

Demosthenes stammered badly but he managed to become a renowned orator and the greatest orator in ancient Greece.

Napoleon Bonaparte overcame his lowly beginnings as a diminutive Private in the French Army to become a conquering General annexing a very large chunk of Europe.

Most people who managed to overcome big challenges in life somehow ended up great. There must therefore be some beneficial relationship between obstacles and success in life. This must have been the reason why Booker T. Washington argued that “you measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.”