Bring It On Troubles!

I was never really bullied as a kid. But, like all kids, I did go through an ugly stage. It is a special time in one's prepubescent life when you're on the cusp of radical change, but where your nose, ears and forehead seem to have leaped forward before the rest of your body. You just look weird for a while. This is usually around grades 4th - 6th. Thankfully, your peers notice the changes, and call them out with gusto. So it was with 5th grade, for me. One day I came home a little depressed. I hadn't been a target before, but now, I was. Damn! After a particular bout of complaining to my Mom, she gave me some incredible advice: name your troubles, and go after them. Her point: you can't just stand there upset, you need to face your fears.

Her advice hasn't left me (smart Mom). I've found that the more one almost personifies fears, the more light you put on them. In the book, The Power of Now, by Echart Tolle, he dives deep in to the influence the "light" has on a particular part of one's problems. From that exposure, comes wisdom. We all have troubles, and how we grow from them is what makes us human. Ultimately, it isn't a collection of great times in our lives, but a series of character-building exercises, and to hell with those :)

John Maxwell quoted it best: a man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.



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