The C.A.T. Principle – Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014 & 2016

Resilience: The Path to a Gifted Life…

How often do we wonder how some people achieve amazing things? How often do we think, “Why can’t that be me?” We look upon the success of others, and conjure a hundred reasons why they’ve made it. We say: “They were born into it;” “They inherited it;” “They were at the right place at the right time;” “They’re connected;” or “They must have won the lottery,” as we sooth our inadequate feelings. But let’s face it, the path to a gifted life derives not from the aforementioned, but derives from the willingness to work hard, strive long, and never give up. It derives from the willingness to face defeat a hundred times over; it derives from resilience.

But resilience is peculiar and makes no sense. To the bystander, the resilient person appears disjointed and out of touch. Who else attempts to light a bulb 10,000 times over without success? Who else attempts to create a flying machine after numerous crashes? Who else attempts to clutch victory from the jaws of multiple defeats? Whether Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, or Sir Winston Churchill, all demonstrated a resiliency that put them at odds with their time and place. All struggled in spite of the naysayers, and all overcame in spite of the naysayers.

It’s the ability to carry on in the face of overwhelming odds that makes for the resilient person. Where the bystander calls it a day and heads home, the resilient person rolls up the sleeves and gets to work. For the resilient person, the fun begins; for the bystander, the couch awaits.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall,” said Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC). And yet how often do we apply this maxim to our own lives? How often do we cower at the first sight of resistance, whether it’s in winning that new business, new job, or new relationship? One “no” and our fragile ego scurries for cover, and our pride limps home like a wounded lamb.

Sure a “yes” is a beautiful thing, but isn’t it beautiful because of the “no’s” endured along the way? If life were but an unending stream of easily-obtained “yes’s,” then I dare say that boredom would become the number one killer of the human soul. Humankind was not placed on this planet to have everything handed to them (in spite of what many politicians may have us believe), but rather to enjoy the fruits of one’s success that comes with resilience. And it’s the act of creating that leads to life’s greatest rewards (see Creativity: Life’s Enduring Reward…).

It’s incumbent upon us to remember that that which is easily obtained, is never treasured as much as that, which came with much adversity. And it’s resilience that sees us through the tunnel, when the light seems far and distant. So appreciate that next “no,” for with resilience, it is but a stepping stone on the path to a gifted life…

For more, check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here. Now revised and expanded, and a Nominee for the Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of the 2015 Global Ebook Awards.

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A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook.

2015 Global Ebook Awards Nominee for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook