Character and resilience of a human spirit is truly tested in tough times. Those who capitulate in the face of adversity become dispirited and there are also those who tap into something deep down and rise above the difficulties.Your dreams and your right to live a meaningful life is always worth a fight, says Karan Verma, as he suggests a 3 step approach to bounce back from adversity
In one voice, they decide to be tougher than the toughest times and rise above to realise their destiny. How do they do it? It is not because they are biologically or genetically different. What is different is their mental conditioning and the will to win.
The reason some people give up too easily is that they either indulge in self-pity and paint themselves as victims or they just don’t feel that their cause is worth fighting for and so they choose the easy route of giving up. Truth is that your dreams, your hopes and your right to live a meaningful life is always worth a fight.
The moot point however remains — how does one get the strength to keep on going when nothing is working out. As the author of the recently released bestselling novel titled Dhruv — Love Story of an Alchemist, which is an ode to everyone who has survived through tough times, I believe that three things help us immensely in bouncing back from abysmal depths. Let’s be honest when we are hit by adversity in our gut, it pains and it pains hard. I suggest we should initially accept the pain for what it is but we should be quick to re-group ourselves and start preparing for a bounce back.
The first approach that always helps is having gratitude. Stepping back and counting your blessings gives us immense strength in bouncing back. As long as one’s health is intact, gratitude is the key to immense mental strength and it fires up our spirit to soaring heights.
It is the secret drug that makes one fearless in the face of testing times. As for the proverbial question of glass half-full or half empty, I would always be grateful for it being half-full and be totally pumped up to make it completely full.
The second step that helps one bounce back is abandoning the fear of failure. The truth is that most of us are too afraid of failure, too afraid of being labeled foolish or dumb. This fear never really allows us to express ourselves in a free-flowing manner.
It is like driving a car with the hand-brake on. Have you ever wondered why certain sports teams always choke under pressure ? Well the reason behind it is that they are too over-awed by the occasion. Even when they are in a winning position, the fear of losing continues to lurk in their minds. We have to abandon this fear of failure.
There is a reason why Lord Krishna told Arjun on the battle-field that ‘Karma’ (action) belongs to him whereas the fruits of the action belong to the lord.
This basic understanding of the fact that all we have control over is our effort, instills in us a fearlessness. It strengthens our mind to a point where we are so consumed by the process that we stop thinking about the result.
The third approach is the one that catapults you to a league of the extraordinary. I call it — loving the grind! Those who accomplish great tasks in life are the ones who can take both the bouquets as well as the brickbats with equal grace.
They love the crests as well as the troughs cause most importantly they love the game of life. Every adversity for them is an opportunity to rise above to the next level. They push the envelope, they are pumped up all the time and when the hovering dark clouds of adversity pass by, they shine like the stars above.
These hustlers keep hanging in there during the toughest times cause they know that the darkest nights produce the brightest stars!
The writer is a public speaker, author and entrepreneur
