Challenges and struggle are part and parcel of life. We all need to learn how to overcome challenges and struggle in order to move forward in life. They actually help to strengthen and make us stronger. A person who has never struggled and overcomed challenges is a person who isn’t moving forward in life. He will break down the moment he is exposed to struggle and challenges.

The following story describes challenges and struggle are part and parcel of life…

A teacher was teaching his students on how a caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly. He told the students that in the next few hours, the butterfly would struggle to come out of the cocoon, but no one should help it.

The teacher left the classroom leaving all his students inside. The students were waiting anxiously until finally the big moment came. The butterfly began to struggle to get out of the cocoon. One of the students took pity and decided to go against the advice of the teacher by assisting the butterfly out of the cocoon. He could not bear to see the butterfly struggle and decided to break the cocoon.

Shortly afterwards all the students were shocked to see that the butterfly had died. When the teacher returned and found out what had happened, he explained to the students that by helping the butterfly, they had actually killed it because the butterfly needed to struggle to help develop and strengthen its wings. Without going through the process, the butterfly will die.

The above story is simple but it brings across a powerful message. Human beings are the same, we all need to struggle and overcome our challenges in life. We will become stronger everytime we overcome our challenges. So if you encounter a challenge in your life right now, don’t run away from it, face your challenge and develop yourself through the process.

You can only have abundant life if you develop strength and courage through struggle and challenges!

If you tie a baby elephant to a small pole, the elephant will try to move but is unable to do so because it is still small and does not have the strength. It will keep on trying and trying but at some point the small elephant will stop trying. After few years when the elephant is fully-grown, it will not try to escape because it thinks that it’s useless to try. The elephant has failed many times before and thought that it can never move the pole. You see, the grown-up elephant will have the strength to move big logs and with just one slight movement it could free itself from the small pole, yet it has been conditioned not to try anymore.

You see, you may have failed many times before but it doesn’t mean that you will fail again if you try. The future is not equal to the past and today may be a new day. Everything may turn out differently if you just have the courage to try once more. Learn from the past and move into the future with confidence. The past is gone and you don’t have to dwell on it. Set new plans, eliminate fear from your thoughts and move on!

One day a farmer found an eagle’s egg and brought it home. He placed the eagle’s egg together with some chicken eggs to be hatched. The little eagle was hatched together with the other chicks. The little eagle started his life and followed the mother hen. He behaves just like the other chicks. He followed the ways of the chicken. He moved and walked like all the other chickens.

One day when the little eagle was wandering aroung with the other chicks, an adult eagle flying nearby saw him. The big eagle flew down trying to talk to the little eagle. All the chickens were terrified and fled. The big eagle stopped the little eagle and asked, “What are you doing with the chickens? You are an eagle just like me. You can fly like me and your home is high up the cliffs”.

The little eagle was confused and said, “I can’t fly like you, I am a chichken”. The big eagle said, “Yes, you can and I am going to teach you how to fly”. He then grabbed the little eagle in its claws and brought him to a cliff. The little eagle spent few days learning how to fly from the big eagle. Initially, he fell many times but finally able to spread his wings and took off to the sky. The young eagle discovered that he could indeed fly. He finally discovered his true self and behaved like an eagle. He never went back to those chickens again.

We are all born “eagles” and are able to soar high into the sky. We all have a higher potential within us and we should realize it. Sometimes, what we need is just a little guidance from others who are already successful.

One day there was a big flood hit a village. Everyone was evacuated and fled for safety, except for one man who believed that, “God will save him. He always said that he had faith in God and He would come and save him.”

As the water level rose, a jeep came to rescue him but he refused help and said, “God will save me. I have faith.” So the jeep went away… As the water level rose further, he went up to the second story. Not long after there was a boat came by and the owner of the boat asked the man to hop in so that they could move to the safe place. Again the man refused and said, “God will save me. I have faith.” So the boat gone…

The water kept rising and rising… and finally the man was forced to climb up to the roof. A helicopter came to rescue him, but again he refused and said, “God will save me. I have faith.” So the chopper gone…

At the end there was no one came by to rescue him and the man drowned. When he came face to face with God, he angrily commented, “I have complete faith in you. Why did you ignore my prayers and let me drown?” To that God replied, “Who do you think sent the jeep, the boat, and the helicopter?”

Moral of the story:

We all have to take action to help ourselves. Nobody will help you unless you first decide you want to be helped. In this case, making a decision is the first action you have to take.

The way to catch a monkey is to use a jar with a small opening at the top big enough for the monkey to slide its hand inside. Inside the jar are some fruits to lure the monkeys. The monkey will grab the fruits with its hand and forms a fist. When the monkey tries to get its hand out, the opening will be too small for the fist to come out. The monkey has a choice to either let go of the fruits in order to escape or to hang on to the fruits and get captured. It is sad that the monkey will not let go and keep holding on to the fruits.

What is the morale of this story?

Most people behave like the monkey. They hold on to old things and ideas that can no longer help them to succeed. They refuse to change because they are comfortable with what they have. To move forward in life, sometimes we just have to let go of the past and move ahead with confidence and faith. We may even have to break traditions, get out from our comfort zone and just press on.

If you want something badly enough, you can find the means to get it. In other words, success is a matter of choice. If you have enough strong reasons, there is nothing that can stop you. Talk is cheap, let’s your actions do the talking. Similarly, a mere wish would not make things happen. It is a burning desire that turned into an obsession that will generate the energy to bring you to achieve any goal that you desire.

Take away the following story…

There was once a young boy who wanted to seek the secret of success. One day he approached a wise man living in an old temple near a valley. When he found the wise man, he asked, “Wise man, can you tell me the secret to becoming successful in life?” The wise man didn’t respond. After a moment of silence, the wise man led the young boy to a nearby river.

They kept walking into the river until the boy’s head was fully submerged in the water. The boy struggled to keep his head above the water. But to his surprise, the wise man didn’t help him. Instead, the wise man pushed the boy’s head further in the water. After a few minutes the wise man pulled the boy out of the water and they walked back to the old temple. At the temple, the wise man asked the young boy what he desired most when his head was submerged in water? The young boy quickly responded, “Of course, I wanted to breathe, you old fool!” To which the wise man replied, “Son, if you desire success as much as you wanted to breathe, then you would have found the true secret of success.”

Perhaps the best explanation you can find for “comfort zone” is from Wikipedia. It defines comfort zone as follow…

“A comfort zone denotes that limited set of behaviors that a person will engage without becoming anxious. Alternatively denoted as a “plateau” it describes that set of behaviors that have become comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. A person’s personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish.” – quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_zone

If you have a house and family to go home to and you have a job that can support your daily basic necessities, it’s ok to feel comfortable. However, you must always keep your 3rd eye open to the never-stopping of movements and changes of the world. The comfort zone can become the danger zone when you’re stuck in it persistently even though you know that there is a better alternative.

The danger is that when you’re deeply engraved in your comfort zone, you’re mentally conditioned to feel safe without realizing that you’re actually staying in a grave zone. This condition is best described by the following frog-boiling story…

It has been said that if a frog is threw into a container of boiling water, it will instantly jump out of the boiling water. But, if it is placed into a container of cold water, it liked it and stayed in the container. When the heat was turned on at the bottom of the container and the water get warmer, the frog felt comfortable and relaxed and even took a nap. The frog was so comfortable that it stayed in the container until it was “cooked”.

Most people are in the “comfort zone” and they prefer to stay there because it feels safe. Like the boiling frog in the story, we refuse to get out of our comfort zone and prefer to stay where we are because we feel warm and comfortable. We become unaware of the gradual shift of our comfort zone to danger zone. Remember that there is no such thing as “staying where we are”, because by nature things are evolving and changing. If we are always staying where we are, that means we’re not moving ahead in life. And if we’re not moving ahead, according to the law of nature, we’re actually moving in the opposite direction… to the danger zone!