HOLD FAST TO THAT ROPE!

“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

 

You might be wondering why I love to talk about resilience so much. Well, as it is said, "experience is the best teacher." Throughout the few years I have lived, resilience is one virtue that I have had to imbibe in order to survive. In fact, this blog is a product of resilience because I wrote it despite the fact that my body was threatening to succumb to malaria. So you see, we live and breathe each day by resilience.

We all have stages in life when things seem to be going against us, when life issues seem not to be going our way. People often try to give us reasons to doubt ourselves, or pull out of life’s game. What you do with such people will determine what you'll actually turn out to be.

Gever Tulley once said “persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems”. What this simply implies is that for anyone to be great in life, challenges and problems are inevitable. We have to go through these things in order to have the capacity to carry the weight that is attached to greatness.

I like to picture life’s issues as a military obstacle course or training ground. The trials and obstructions are the training kits that we use during our training sessions and as we know, without them, training sessions would be a whole waste of time. The pains that we sometimes experience are the bruises that we incur during these training sessions; they are inevitable. The coaches at the grounds are our advisers (elders, guardians and most importantly, the Holy Spirit), they serve as guides around life (training ground) and help to navigate our way through these challenges. The unnecessary spectators who jeer at poor performances are the distractions that attempt to veer us of our track, make us down-spirited and make us lose focus. They are to be avoided like a bowl of plagues. Finally, as the Yoruba adage goes, “adun lo n gbeyin ewuro”, the prize at the end of the training is the great reward of fulfillment and success that emerges due to our resilience.

Because we are humans, we are bound to make mistakes. It’s a normal thing for us, but the only action that would be injurious to us would be to refuse to rise from our mistakes and forge ahead. Refusal to move on with life has kept countless number of people in miserable conditions. For some, it is anxiety that gets the better of them and keeps them on a spot. But in the words of Beverly Sills, “you may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try”. What makes us strong as creative beings is the ability to learn from the past, take note of our present while focusing on the future.

When a tree is burned down, it always seem as though its life span has ended. But as long as its roots are still buried in the ground, there is still hope that it will sprout again. Though it may take a while, as long as it gets water and is exposed to adequate sunlight, it will live again. This is applicable to us also. Though we have been exposed to storms of life that has plunged us into the realms of emotional trauma and into the heart of psychological darkness, we can rise from the ashes of our pains and forge ahead with life. Don’t let people see you and make you a by-word for cowardice. Be the person you are meant to be. One of my teachers once said, “I’m not afraid to die, I’m only afraid of dying filled”. Let it be a commitment that when you would die, you would not be buried with all your potentials in you. Have a mind to unleash every ounce of potential in you. Cherish life. Keep pushing. Keep striving. You’ll get there soon.

Have you ever felt like giving up? Why not share your experience below. I look forward to learning from your wonderful stories.

Much love!

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
― Margaret Thatcher