“Sweet are
the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet
a precious jewel in its head.” WilliamShakespeare.
When
adversity strikes, we tend to be cowed down by the overwhelming circumstances.
It is during these tough times that the tough get going. And mental toughness is
about accepting reality, analysing facts, realising achievable changes and
above all, it is about keeping a sustained
positive attitude towards life.
A young boy and
his father were climbing a mountain. The walk was long and arduous, and the boy was tired and complaining.
Suddenly,
the boy fell, hurt himself and screamed: "Aaahhhhh!!!"
To his
surprise, he heard a voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain:
"Aaahhhhh!!!"
Curious,
he yelled: "Who are you?"
He
received the answer: "Who are you?"
Angered at
the response, he screamed: "Coward!"
He
received the response: "Coward!"
The son looked
to his father and asked: "What's going on?"
The father smiled and said: "My son, pay attention."
The father smiled and said: "My son, pay attention."
And the
father he screamed to the mountain: "I admire you!"
The voice
answered: "I admire you!"
Again the
man screamed: "You are a champion!"
The voice
answered: "You are a champion!"
The boy
was surprised, but did not understand.
Then the
father explained: "People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE. It's a reflection of you! It gives you back everything you say or do. If you give hatred, life will give you hatred back. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. ”
How true it is that this relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life. For example, in your day-to-day working life, if you want more competence in your team, you have to first improve your own competence. Your success or failure in achieving the desired results will simply reflect your actions.
The power of positive thinking is enormous. You thoughts influence how you react with your environment. If you think negatively, you will act negatively and the environmental response will be negative. This will further reinforce your negative thinking, and over a period of time you will be engulfed in the spiral of negativity and failure. Positive thinking will make you act positive, and the probability of positive results will be higher. One positive result got, you will be acting towards achieving more such results. This is an upward spiral that will lift you heights of success.
If basis
of success is attitude, it calls for each one of us to introspect upon our
attitude towards life.
© Sujata Khanna. All rights reserved.
