Experience is expensive, and the lessons of life never end. Just when you think you have graduated from the school of experience, along comes a completely new study course with tests at the end of every lesson. It seems like experience would be a better teacher if it did not charge so much for tuition. The value for experience costs more than most people are willing to pay. Sometimes the price of experience costs us more later because we are oftentimes unwilling to pay the cheaper price earlier. Experience is actually what enables you to recognize mistakes when you see it again. If you fall into the same trap that you experienced earlier, it is because you did not gain new experience in how to avoid it. Since life is inundated with the guarantees that life attracts trouble, struggles, and problems, it is necessary that we learn how to take the heat without being burned.
Greek mythology
There is an old Greek mythology about a baby named, Achilles. Baby Achilles was dipped into the waters that would make him impervious or impenetrable to the stroke of the sword or the point of an arrow. However, according to this legend, his submersion covered every place except where his heel was held. Therefore, when Achilles went into the great fight, at first nothing could harm any part of his body. Finally, an arrow pierced Achilles’ heel and caused his death. Centuries after this Greek myth, we still refer to someone’s “Achilles’ heel.” This means an unprotected area or a weak spot.
Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities
All of us have weak and vulnerable areas of our lives that we struggle to protect. We become disturbed by the illusion of problems and therefore we fix our sights on the visible instead of the invisible. Most people would rather treat the symptoms than the problem because fixing the problem means working on oneself. Usually, ‘me’ is not the problem; the problem is the other person. Avoiding your weaknesses does not make them eventually disappear. If you are unequipped for trouble then you are ill prepared for life. Life is loaded with difficulties and struggles. If you are going to get through the struggles of life, you are going to have to struggle to get through. You can no longer act civil when facing problems that are designed to take you out. I discovered that life is not a choreographed wrestling match. People go through real life situations such as divorce, rape or incest, death, financial ruin and so many other tragedies.
Making Adjustments
When you are experiencing turbulence in your life, you must learn to make adjustments and cut the autopilot switch off. You must take control of the instruments of life and weather the storm. As the storm eventually subsides, your problems will let up because you refuse to give up. You must combat your weaknesses, confront your fears and persevere until you get through your troubles or outlast them.
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles, which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” –Booker T. Washington
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