Yesterday when I was coaching and one of the kids told me "my life would be so much better if my challenges just disappear". Ofcourse he was talking about homework and dealing with school. But this can also be translated to life in general. Coincidentally, I watched a video on this over the weekend and I asked the kid: "would it?" I thought it was a fascinating topic that is worth being discussed on the blog!
After the question, I showed the kid a video of the commencement speech of Mark Rober, where he made the following analogy: "If super Mario brothers was just jumping over one pit and then you would rescue princess peach, then no-one would play it. Where is the risk and reward, where is the challenge? There is no ultimate feeling of satisfaction. Achieving your ultimate goal means so much precisely because of all the struggles and setbacks that you've had to endure. If you want to cross the river of life, you are going to get wet, you're going to have to backtrack, and that is not a bug, it's a feature. If you frame those failures and slips like a video game and not only will you learn more, and do it faster, but it will make all the successful jumps along the way that much sweeter." I think that this is a great way to explain dealing with challenges and obstacles. Especially because it is relatable to kids.
The full speech can be found here⬇️ (the part above starts at 11:57)
In the stoic philosophy there are multiple sayings on dealing with adversity. I really like the following quote by Seneca:
To me, this quote means that every challenge and every obstacle is a chance to prove myself. Chances are that I may make an error. But the next time a challenge or obstacle arises, it is a new chance to prove to myself that I have learned from it and take different actions to improve. If I didn't have any obstacles or challenges in my life, then I wouldn't have a chance to prove to myself that I can handle them or learn from them.
Both perspectives make it a bit easier to embrace challenges and obstacles. They are part of the journey and give you the ability to prove to yourself, grow, and learn. That is why, hopefully after reading this, you will embrace the challenges and obstacles in your life more than shy away from them
I hope that this was helpful and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Maico
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