QUOTES ON HOPE / OVERCOMING ADVERSITY

Do you ever feel like things are stacked against you? Perhaps you even feel unlucky? 

Think about people who succeeded despite great adversity. 

And then ask yourself what is more in your favor, to feel denied or learn to overcome adversity?

If you feel denied, you’re probably right, but it’s a trick of the mind not to allow negative things in. Focusing on the learning to overcome adversity puts you on the road to success 

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”. – Winston Churchill

Here’s a story of a man who influenced me as a teenager.

I was at the beach one summer day when a South American man in his early 40’s pulled his station wagon near my beach towel. It was a sunny day and people were everywhere. The moment he arrived people gathered around to buy a bag of corn chips with a scoop of spicy chili-like sauce poured over the top.

As the summer progressed we became friends – but it took me a decade to realize he’d taught me a lot about conquering adversity.

This man never complained, never cursed the system or anyone for that matter. He would sit and read a coursebook on the English language in between customers.

I had been raised around culturally diverse groups and as a child, half of my friends didn’t speak my language, therefore, I learned how to sketch, or act out communication. So, I began communicating with him right off the bat. It amused him but even more, he appreciated the fact I gave little notice to what anyone thought. And so, I became his tutor for a bag of those amazing chips.

I sadly remember that people didn’t treat him so nicely, and he lived in a very bad neighborhood with his family, but he was always positive and always studying.

Most of the families working in that area were migrant crop pickers and 15 of them might live in a two-room shack. I assumed he did as well and one day I express pity for him – but he called me out on it, and said, “The world is big, pity is for those who want to be lost, I just need a map!”

I was not the typical teen, I preferred to study or read over parties and groups. Therefore, it was easy to talk this man’s ear off. He’d laugh at times over it, but he was a walking encyclopedia. We discussed the jellyfish, and seashells, rocks and fish, how waves were formed, and why people were the way they were. The man was a raving science buff who made everything funny. I will always remember the morning hunt for shells I’d gather before he arrived. They were our research pieced and how I taught him English.

The last time I saw him I shed tears to say goodbye, but it was a happy moment to learn he’d been offered a position that would give him and his family a chance. This is what I learned from him.

“Every failure is a real experience, and every success is because of that real experience!”

The only way you’re going to beat adversity is to focus on learning to overcome. He focused on learning the language and finding a way without dwelling on the fact that he deserved better. Hell, he survived by selling bags of chips one by one with a smile on his face, and the whole time he was a man with a Ph.D.! 

Franklin Roosevelt

Quotes On Hope

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
― Thomas Paine,

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
― Helen Keller

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope itself is like a star — not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
― Aristotle

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― Mark Twain

Albert Einstein

He couldn‘t get a job teaching physics or as a professor.” Here’s a man who developed a theory of special and general relativity, and was a major contributor to quantum mechanics to name a couple of his accomplishments! And it took two years to get a job! We forget that famous people were not always famous or living the good live, they went through tough times. I cannot imagine having a mind such as Einstein and not finding a job!

Victor Frankl

Author of Man’s Search For Meaning, one of the ten most influential books in the United States. The book sold over 10 million copies and had been translated into 24 languages by the time he passed away in 1997!

A holocaust victim and survivor who was imprisoned at several concentration camps including Auschwitz where he lost his pregnant wife and family at the murderous hands of the Nazis.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
― Victor Frankl

Layne Beachley

What might not be obvious was the adversity she faced with mental, physical, and emotional challenges that led to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and depression. But this remarkable athlete and caring woman faced it, beat it, and went on to win 8 world titles!

I speak from experience, it’s not always easy to get up each morning and do what’s right. Even when we love what we do, as Layne loves the waves. When pressures mount physically and mentally it takes learning to overcome adversity one day at a time and for many, it takes a variety of strategies. Like for me, I need a wide range of creative outlets to fight adversity at times, one plan doesn’t do it.

Charlotte Brown

“I finally did it,” Brown said. “If I could send a message to anybody, it’s not about pole vaulting and it’s not about track. It’s about finding something that makes you happy despite whatever obstacles are in your way.”
― Charoltte Brown

Bruce Lynn Dellinger

More Quotes On Hope

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.” 
― John Lennon

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” 
― Tom Bodett

“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” 
― Anne Frank

Chinese migrant workers’ band spreads music and joy to laborers away from home in the Yangtze River Delta area

BILL GATES FIRST BUSINESS FAILED

FunBug – Nick Woodman

Whatever your adversity is don’t feel alone, learning to overcome adversity is your best chance, so let’s learn a few methods that work and create a specific plan just for you.