Adversity Is Not Something to Run Away From. We know that life is filled with challenges, yet when they happen to us we find it difficult to see that these moments are a chance to grow and learn. My book, The Trap of Success, shows you how adversity can lead to gifts and infection points that drive you forward.

Adversity is part of the journey of living. It’s not something to be avoided by living a cautious life. Adversity is what shapes us.

Let your tough times, failures, and adversities add to your character. Let the moments that challenge you change you. As you live your life, embrace the hard experiences that define your thinking. And remember that those times that knock you down are there to make you grow.

Too often, any setback, or even any temporary lack of success, is seen as a failure. But is that really right? When you encounter a barrier, or fail to reach some goal, is all lost?

What about the benefit of the learning you gained along the way? What about the experience you’ve added that allows you to do it better the next time? What about the inner growth that comes from dealing with adversity?

Thinking that you must avoid failure at all costs is just one more way that a limited vision of success traps us.

Examples of Growth Through Adversity

There was once a young man who was cut from his high school basketball team. That moment of failure triggered something inside him. After he dried the tears away, he got to work in earnest on pursuing his dream. That man was Michael Jordan, who hit the NCAA championship-winning shot a few years later, then went on to win six NBA championships, five MVP awards, and 10 scoring titles. Jordan let his moment of adversity propel him to be more.

Or consider the young single mother who finished writing her first novel in cafes while her baby daughter napped beside her. She was jobless, her marriage had ended badly, and for a while she had to rely on government benefits to make ends meet. Her novel was turned down by a dozen publishers before Bloomsbury Publishing bought it…and brought forth Harry Potter to the world. Even that debut was inauspicious: just 1,000 copies and an advance of £1,500. But the book began winning awards, then sold for a much higher sum to a U.S. publisher, and soon became a juggernaut worldwide.

No one guaranteed J. K. Rowling that she would succeed, and it took seven turbulent years from the original inspiration for Harry Potter to the publication of the first volume. But Rowling had the kind of grit that allowed her to persevere in the face of adversity.

Let me know about your adversity that caused you to follow to new path…a better path.