(Two minute read about how to best face adversity in life!)
Most of you reading this post have likely realized just how difficult life can be. But let’s be more specific. Can you think of a time that you faced an obstacle in life that truly seemed impossible to overcome? Have you experienced a time where you just couldn’t seem to catch your breathe and you seemed to face one obstacle after the next? If the answer is yes than this post is for you….
After I was medically discharged from the United States Army, my life was truly turned upside down. Everything I had envisioned for my future was swept from beneath me and in the matter of a few months and honestly, I felt like I was drowning. I went from being a rock star soldier to walking with a cane. A few months after that, I received a letter in the mail stating I was no longer “fit for duty” and sent home – crushed and defeated. I had no idea what my life would mean if I wasn’t a soldier. Now three back surgeries later, I live with chronic pain everyday as I continue my difficult transition back to civilian life…
The hardest part was that up until the day I was injured, I firmly believed in the saying that “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”. In fact, I loved that saying because my life has been filled with one obstacle after the next. Despite life kicking my a$% time after time, I had convinced myself that if I just survived the ass-kicking I endured, I would come out the other side stronger…
But after my injury I realized that saying isn’t always true.
When I came home crippled by pain and barely able to walk, I felt sorry for myself. I survived, but I sure as hell didn’t feel any stronger. I hated the world for taking my ability to be a soldier and despite surviving such a difficult time in my life, I felt much weaker.
If what doesnt kill us only makes us stronger than why didnt I feel any stronger? Well, when I started writing my first book, Reflections from the Man in the Mirror, I relived the type of man I was before the Army. I relived all of the hard times I faced with family, failing out of school, getting in trouble, etc. I realized that despite surviving those difficult times, what got me through it and truly made me stronger was my choice to learn from those challenges I faced and to carve a different path for myself. I realized that what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger…if we choose to grow from it; if we learn from those experiences and make the necessary changes to prevent those same obstacles from resurfacing. It was the decision to stop feeling sorry for myself that made me stronger and my choice to mold those difficult times of my life into stepping stones for a stronger tomorrow.
Life isn’t meant to be easy. We are all faced with countless obstacles to overcome and difficult storms to weather, but if we survive those difficult times and consciously choose to use those experiences as opportunities to grow, then we do, in fact, become stronger…
So if you have, or are currently, facing a difficult time in your life, just hold on. Don’t give up and when you overcome that obstacle (which you will), take the time to reflect on what worked. Give yourself a pat on the back and be proud of your resiliency. Identify ways that you can grow from that experience and mold those difficult times into stepping stones for a stronger tomorrow.
By: Timothy A. Natale
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Here’s what these books will share with you:
- Life-changing lessons about how to face adversity and overcome the obstacles you’re faced with in life.
- Proven strategies for adding happiness and positivity to your life in a world surrounded by negativity.
- The inspirational journey that led me from a spoiled life of squandered opportunities to enlisting in the United Stated Army and the crippling injury that brought me back home.
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- The valuable perspective that helped me turn my disability into a way to find more happiness and peace in the way I live.
- This book will challenge you to reconsider the way you view the world around you and your openness to new experiences.
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