Today was a difficult day. When I woke up in bed my back was in a particularly painful state as soon as I attempted to stretch. For those of you who don’t know I have a pretty messed up disc in my back near my tailbone. It causes generalized muscle pain in the area along with nerve pain radiating down my left leg. There is this brief moment when waking when the world is fuzzy and blurry and I feel pain free for just a moment before my back sends me a reminder which elicits a groan from my lips. Today is just another day that I have keep my head above the distractions. My focus is much more important. My pain and my struggle is just a part of life and living.
I want you to consider the environment around you. Where you live, what you do, who you think you are, and how lucky you really are. When I was deployed overseas to Iraq I saw living conditions that changed my outlook on life forever. You can’t experience the sort of mind expansion that comes with war and being a young man without being there first hand. My words in this article or even in person would never do it justice. As soldiers we didn’t have 2 bottles of purified water a day at the worse and at the best we had to wear the same uniform for weeks at a time until after the first nine months. While this might sound difficult to you, we were witnessing people who were in living conditions that I still have a hard time discussing to this day. People who are actually living in Biblical times in certain regions. Do you really get upset that your Iphone didn’t full charge after your night out of drinking and just how expensive that Uber fee was? Consider not being able to go to work because some anti-government folks are threatening to kill anyone who drives on the road to work during the day. Difficult to imagine?
The words that resonate so much with me are those of Helen Keller. She said that “character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” I want to challenge you to find the trials and the things that you are suffering through as the things which are going to push you forward to a better you. Try to take off the rose colored glasses that you may be wearing and consider the actual world that we live in. Instead of complaining about the struggles you have in your life use them as a point of reference. I can’t purchase that item yet but I have the ability to save up for it in just a few weeks! I can’t do five pull-ups now but if I work on them every day I will be able to soon! If a woman who lost her hearing and sight was able to overcome her disabilities and find the intestinal fortitude go to college in the 1900s to receive a Bachelor’s degree, I challenge you to overcome anything you perceive is in your way in life and overcome it.
Life is for the living. Start living it to your maximum potential. Life is short. Enjoy your struggle. It helps you grow.