A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book, Leading in Tough Times (p. 1). Center Street, Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Well, it is, isn't it?
John says, "This is particularly a problem in America today. We expect a smooth and easy road to success. We expect our lives to be hassle-free. We expect the government to solve our problems. We expect to get the prize without having to pay the price. That is not reality! Life is hard."
"He goes on, "In Life’s Greatest Lessons, Hal Urban writes,
"Once we accept the fact that life is hard, we begin to grow. We begin to understand that every problem is also an opportunity. It is then that we dig down and discover what we’re made of. We begin to accept the challenges of life. Instead of letting our hardships defeat us, we welcome them as a test of character. We use them as a means of rising to the occasion."
John continues, "This reality is especially important for leaders to recognize and embrace. Nothing worth having in life comes without effort. That is why psychiatrist M. Scott Peck begins his book The Road Less Traveled with the words 'Life is difficult.' If we don’t understand and accept the truth that life is difficult, that leadership is difficult, then we set ourselves up for failure and we won’t learn or succeed.
"As leaders, even if we are willing to concede that life is difficult for most people, deep down inside many of us secretly hope somehow that this truth won’t apply to us. But no one escapes life’s problems, failures, and challenges. If we are to make progress, we must do so through life’s difficulties. Or as poet Ralph Waldo Emerson stated it, 'The walking of Man is falling forwards.'"
John then says, "Good leaders understand that adversity and challenges are actually opportunities to rise up in leadership."
And that is what we need to know and realize, isn't it? Yes, yes! #continuethought
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