Dear Friends,
It seems to me, persistence in the face of adversity is a sign of inner strength, and the only way to succeed. We all meet challenges in our daily lives. It is the human condition. To get mad, depressed or angry when we are held back is normal, but to move ahead is uber human. To advance when the ground has been cleared for us is no sign of strength but one of weakness. We grow in adversity and stagnate in ease. This truism is one of the counter intuitive facts of human existence. The old saying, “only the strong survive.” is more true than we like to think. Knowing this is one of the keys to success in life.
Persistence is not giving up. Many times we are told this or that cannot work, that we are not qualified or competent enough, but these are fallacies told us by the prince of lies. Virtually every advancement in human history was poo pooed by the “learned” in society. If those great men and women who advanced the cause of science, philosophy, government and invention gave up, we would still be in the stone age. None of the advancements that have freed us to pursue our dreams could have happened. If we allow ourselves to be frustrated by the gate keepers we cede the future of humanity to them.
It is all too easy to give up when we experience a setback by life. We can easily loose hope and fall into self recriminations. This is the path to mediocrity and failure. Those who have succeeded in the face of great adversity have always been those who get back up and move on. The truth is, anyone can lay down, but only the powerful of heart move forward. It is up to us to choose to be powerful of heart or weak in spirit. I suggest we choose strength instead of weakness.
It is human to get mad, feel despair, or turn inward when our ideas, plans and ambitions are turned back by the gatekeepers, but those very human emotions can be turned to our advantage. We can feed from anger to push against the tide of ignorant people. Despair however chains us as does turning inward. We must temper our emotions with logic, but as Freud proposed, the poor ego is attacked at every turn by the super ego and the id. It has also been said differently, but the same, that our emotions are like an elephant, our rationality the driver. The driver has limited control and it is the elephant that has the real power. If we let the elephant control us we are lost but if we nudge the elephant into the right path we can use it’s power to do real work.
Every good in the World comes through other people from God. We can use this to our advantage by asking other people’s advice. We must stay in communication with each other to get the good that God bestows on us because it is his will that we do. Allow others to teach us, help us and sustain us, it not only helps us but them as well. People need to be needed and by our asking or leaning on them, we tell them in no uncertain terms that we need them. Others can be a font of strength that we sometimes need when we have been pushed down.
Unfortunately some people don’t want us to succeed because it makes them feel big to see us fail. They toss road blocks in our way and laugh that we are too dumb, too ignorant or too idealistic to pass. They revel in stomping on our dreams because theirs are so mundane. In a barrel of monkeys none can get out because if one tries the others will pull it back in. We cannot be monkeys we must be human hearted people.
If success is because the road has been paved for us it is not real success. Those who are given awards they do not deserve, positions they do not merit and accolades they have not earned, are weakened by them not strengthened. It is human nature to grow in wisdom when a thing is earned and to grow in hubris when it is not. Those who get ahead this way never really mature they simply get older. It is not in our best interest to get ahead by these methods but to push through adversity. I sometimes feel that it is the struggle that is the most important thing… not the success.
Our world needs us to stand up pushing through the road blocks that the elite have tossed in our paths. We will be strengthened by doing so, while those the elite have raised on their shoulders, will become children. Our society, culture and governments will become more humane and free by our efforts. To shrivel back would be to allow those children to keep ruining our World. Not only would we allow but we would actually participate in it’s destruction. So, I say to you, push, strive and persist! That is the only way we will be successful. In life as in saving our planet from those who would enslave us.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
