Building Through Adversity

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

20 Aug 2006 12:30 PM

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

Our lives are populated by challenge. The particular challenges we focus on here in the Fitness blog are those of living a healthy and fit lifestyle. Exercise may seem as though it is our primary focus, but fitness incorporates all aspects of our lives - from our physical well being to our mental, emotional and financial.

The challenges that permeate our lives are the adversities that help us to build character, as well as a better perspective and better yet - helps us build a better us. Adversity through the ages provided the defining moments in our history and helped to shape us as we are.

Hunger is the base of all adversity

Our ancestors were driven by the same basic adversity that drives us today: hunger. In the past, hunger drove the societies that lived by hunting and gathering. Without food or water, they would not survive no matter what season of the year it was.

Today, hunger for food, for knowledge, for a better life, for success, for fame - these are all driving influences in our lives. Our hunger drives us to better success. It is the hunger to be better than we are that pushes us as athletes, artists, parents and more.

We Need Adversity

For all that it would be nice if life were easier - if we could lose weight while thinking about it, overcome illness with just the idea and maintain our personal appearance and financial status by just believing in it. But to be perfectly honest, when life is easy - we're all likely to be bored. Just look at the trouble the idle rich get into for an example.

When we are challenged, it is often associated with forging iron - the fire makes us flexible, but when we come out the other side and we cool down - we are stronger for it. Our inner strength, our very humanity is revealed in times of adversity. Simply look at how we respond to such tragedies as Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center, the federal building in Oklahoma, the hurricanes from Andrew to Katrina to Rita - we rise to these challenges and we strive to become better people.

In this, your fitness challenges offer you a way to rise to the challenge of adversity - overcoming physical weakness, obesity, lack of endurance and more. Our lives are made better when we rise to those challenges. So the next time you look at a fitness program or an exercise regimen or a diet alteration or even a frugal budget plan - remember - these challenges are there to help make us better - to make us stronger and to help us discover the opportunities that are waiting for us amidst the challenge itself.

Don't Think You Can't - Believe You Just Need the Opportunity

The next time you wonder how can you possibly do that or it's too hard or there's just never enough time or that achieving your dreams or your ideals is impossible - remember the Chinese proverb: don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

Remember the opportunity you need - the challenges in your life are full of them. How can you turn your adversity into an opportunity?

Related Articles:

Week 2: Fitness Magazine You Can Do It Challenge

Five Ways to Get Your Fitness Program Back on Track

Your Kids and Exercise

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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