Perseverance / Resilience

When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was numb. She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.

Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.

On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea she struggled on – hour after hour – while millions watched on national television.

Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn’t much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had…until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out.

Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reported, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it.” It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.

Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!

This is a story about a guy named Sir Roger Bannister, a British athlete. He came from an ordinary working class family and wanted to study medicine but his parents couldn’t afford it. Life began to look bleak for him and he even considered joining the WW2 war efforts but then somewhere along the way, he discovered he had a talent for running. He enjoyed running, he was good at it so he kept doing it, working hard to train in the sport until his hard work paid off with him earning a track scholarship to University. He was a recognised runner and when he decided to join the 1952 Olympics, everyone thought he would win. Unfortunately, he didn’t win the Olympics due to a change in the scheduling which messed up his resting routine.

Disappointed by his failure to win at the 1952 Olympics, Bannister considered quitting running for good. However, in the end he decided to persevere and push through his own limits. Doctors and Scientists had determined that it was physically impossible for anyone to run a mile in less than an hour but Bannister decided he would do just that.

He trained every single day for half an hour. He had a rival who was also looking to beat the same timing but he remained focus and kept with his training.

The day came during a competition on 6 May 1954. In front of a crowd of 3000, Bannister ran against 5 other opponents. He ran with all his might and was exhausted on his last lap but he pushed on, driven by the years of determination and hard work. He crossed the finish line, collapsing in exhaustion, unsure if he had beat the odds. But he did! He finished his run at 3.59.4, officially becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Doing so despite what the doctors and scientists had said was impossible. He beat the odds with his determination and hard work.

More about the story here: https://impossiblehq.com/impossible-case-study-sir-roger-bannister/ 

This story is about Diana Nyad, long distance swimmer. When she turned 60, she decided to attempt to swim from Havana to Cuba to Florida, a total of 177km. She tried to do this 4 times but had failed and she was determined to do it again.

This stretch of ocean that she wanted to cross was not going to be an easy one as it was home to rough waters, sharks and the poisonous box jellyfish – which she was her downfall during her 4th attempt where she got stung and had to stop her swim.

At 64 years old, Dian decided to make her 5th attempt, this time more prepared with a newly designed suit and mask to protect her from any jellyfish stings. She began her 5th attempt and swam. She swam for 53 hours through the night and in the day. She hallucinated and vomited and was delirious at some point. She had her team looking after her during her swim, keeping her safe and feeding her. On the 3rd day, while in a delirious state, shivering and even forgetting what she was doing, Diana looked up from her swim and in the distance and she saw lights. She thought that the sun was coming up and was delighted at the prospect of warmth but soon realized that the lights were actually the coast where she would be ending her swim! This realization spurred her on, she kept swimming and finally after 52 hours and 54 minutes, Diana arrived on shore, accomplishing her dream after 4 attempts and breaking a record.

"I've taken on those life lessons, that big break of just wanting the journey to be an elevated experience, no matter the success," she says. "Those people on the beach that day, they were crying. There were several thousand people. What they saw was a human being who had a dream and refused to give up on it. That's how simple the story is."

More about the story here: https://www.npr.org/2015/05/31/410855681/from-cuba-to-florida-diana-nyads-final-attempt-at-a-record-breaking-swim

This is a story about how a dirtbag climber, Alex Honnold, became a professional world renowned rockclimber. He is famously known for scaling some of the tallest and most difficult rockclimbing routes without the safety of a rope.

Alex was a college dropout who lived out of his mother’s borrowed minivan. As a kid, he was too shy to approach strangers to rockclimb with at the gym and so he did a lot of climbing on his own and this in turn allowed him to hone his skills as a solo free climber. He drove around in his minivan, and scale routes alone. Each climb he did, involved bigger and bigger risks which moved him incrementally to do more incredulous climbs such as a famed route on Half Dome in Yosemite, California. This climb tested his limits and eventually brought him to the attention of the climbing community and the world.

One day, entirely on his own without fanfare, Alex Honnold after years of climbing and practice, free solo-ed the famed Half Dome route successfully by himself. He shared that it is to date, one of the most significant climbs of his life and he remembers how about 100 feet to the end of the climb, he started finding it difficult to keep focus. Fortunately, the sounds of hikers about 100 feet away at the top of route, snapped him out of his fate and he completed the climb, eventually hiking back down with the same hikers who did not even realize what he had just accomplished.

His story is not one of an overnight success, Alex Honnold did not get a big break or suddenly become famous. It was an accumulation of various life experiences, solo climbs and determined focus that got him to where he was. What do you hope to have as your big break? What is your dream?

More about his story: https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/459977784/for-famed-rock-climber-a-big-break-that-thankfully-wasnt-literal

Once upon a time there was a seed buried in the mud.  

It was in dark blackness. It was cold and wet. It shivered. It was just plain no fun.

It was icky. It was dirty. It was muddy. It was mucky. It was stuck in the mud.

How it got there is a little 3 sentence story.

One nice breezy Fall day, it had fallen on the ground. Then it rained a little. And a deer came along and stepped on it and pushed it deep in the mud.

Life just wasn't fair. It was all alone. If only it had fallen like the other seeds in the grass, or on the log over there, or at least not been stepped on.

But what the little seed did not see was 

-        the mouse that ate the seeds in the grass

-        and the bird that ate the seeds on the log

-        and the chipmunk that gathered the seeds on the ground to store and eat all winter long.

It couldn't see this because it was stuck in the mud. It didn't know how lucky it was.

Now besides being squished tight in the mud, it was also locked in it's shell. It tried to get out of it's terrible predicament, but the Fall days got shorter and shorter. It got colder and colder too. It had no strength to get out of its shell. The mud was frozen solid, the deep snow covered it. It went through a terribly cold and dark winter.

Finally, after what seemed forever, slowly the days grew a little longer, a little warmer. The seed had work to do. It began to grow.

The water in the mud had softened its shell. Still, how hard it was to get out of its shell ! It had to exert energy like never before. It struggled and struggled. Finally it broke free.

Then it used more energy to go not up, but down, struggling to send a tiny little root through that compacted mud -- that terribly icky place. It needed something to tightly hold on to, because........

...now it had to struggle yet again with great effort to send a tiny little shoot to the light above -- through all that icky mud. Finally it was free. It reached the warm sunlight.

You would think its troubles were over. Not so fast. In a whole year it grew only a few inches, while the other plants grew by leaps and bounds, as if to mock the little seed. Every fall it lost its leaves. In winter it barely survived, covered with snow. And as it got a little taller, it had to go through windstorms and blizzards.

But one thing was peculiar. Even while it slowly grew up to the sunny blue sky, it never forgot its roots. It had the wisdom to keep growing its roots deeper and deeper in the mud.

In fact, it used every wind storm, every blizzard, every shaking, every vibration to wiggle its roots deeper and deeper into the black icky mud.

It knew the importance of a solid foundation, because it always remembered where it came from, how it had been protected and helped by the mud.

The years rolled on, and the seasons too. Each summer it so slowly but surely grew. Each winter it became a little tougher and stronger. It had little joys and little sorrows throughout its life like all of us do.

Then came the fiercest of all storms. The wind blew so violently this way and that. Trees all around were dashed to the ground, broken, uprooted, a jangled mess.

After the devastation, the sun shone once again. To be sure, it didn't look so pretty, some leaves were missing, in fact, quite a few, but that would soon be remedied.

Because it hadn't forgotten its roots as a seed in the mud, it stood there in all its glory. It had become the mighty oak tree.

There was once a man who got so sick of life, he quit his job, severed all relationship ties and headed into the woods for one last reflection. 

There he saw a meditating wise man and told him why he was there. 

"Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" the man asked. 

The wise man responded to his question with another question, "Look around? Do you see the fern and the bamboo?" 

"Yes", the man replied. 

The wise man continued, "When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. 

On the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. 

On the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit. On the fourth year, yet again nothing came out from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit. 

Then on the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was small and insignificant. But just six months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the last four years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. 

All this time that you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots. The growth of the bamboo was no magic. Yet it towers above the fern in the end. Don't compare yourself to others. 

The bamboo has a different purpose from the fern. But together they both make the forest beautiful. The wise man then looked pointedly at the man and said, "Your time will come. Take your roots and you shall rise high just like the bamboo." 

On a clear, warm night, a spider found a tree to spin his web in. He worked all night to spin a big, strong web. The next morning, when it was time for him to sleep – for this spider liked to sleep during the day and come out at night – he went to bed happy, knowing he had spun the best web he could. While he slept, he dreamed of the feast his web would catch for him.

But when he woke up that night, he saw his web had been torn to pieces. The wind had blown so strongly during the day that his web was almost completely blown away. Now the spider had nothing to eat. As he was looking at his torn web, the wind came blowing by. The spider asked the wind, “Wind, why did you blow down my web?” The wind responded with two words, “You’ll see,” then went on his way.

The spider set back to work. He worked all night, making sure his web was twice as big and twice as strong. This way it would have a better chance of not being blown away. So when the sun came up and the spider went to bed – a little hungry, for he had not been able to find much food – he was still happy because he knew he had spun the best web he could.

But when he woke up the next night, his web was in pieces. The wind had blown it away again. Later that night, the wind came rushing by. The spider asked him, “Wind, this time I spun my web even stronger, and you still blew it away. Why did you blow away my web?” The wind responded with two words, “You’ll see,” then went on his way.

The spider once again got back to work – and he was very hungry this time. But he made the web even bigger and even stronger, stretching it across many branches in the tree. Surely the wind could not blow this one away. Surely his feast the next night would be grand. That morning, the spider went to bed knowing he had spun the best web he could.

But the following night, the spider saw it had happened again! The web that he had spent hours spinning – the biggest, strongest web he had ever made – was now only strings. The wind had blown it down again. When the wind came blowing by, the spider became angry and shouted, “Wind, I spun the biggest and strongest web I could! I spent hours working on it, and still you blew it down. Now I have no breakfast and am starving. Why, Wind, why did you blow down my web?” The wind responded with two words, “You’ll see,” then went on his way.

With an empty belly and tears in his eyes, the frustrated spider stared at his torn web. What would he do? Would he spin it again? Yes, he would. For there was nothing else he could do but keep spinning. All night long he worked harder than he ever had before. He made the places where his web anchored to the tree as thick as the branches. He spun until his web covered the entire tree. He worked until the sun was up, and when he was finished, he had made the biggest web he had ever seen. Surely the wind cannot blow this one away. That night, the spider went to bed knowing for sure he had spun the best web he could.

When he woke up that night, he was overjoyed. His web had completely made it! It was just as he had left it when he went to sleep. And it held for him the greatest feast he had ever seen! The spider had never felt so proud of himself.

Later that night, the wind came by again. The spider said to him, “Wind, thank you for not blowing down my web.” The wind replied, “You’re welcome. I’m sorry that I blew down your webs, but you see, if I had not blown them down, you would never have built this magnificent web. You would never have known how strong you truly are.”

And with that, the wind blew softly away, and the spider enjoyed his feast.

There were two frogs that had become bored with life in the Rivers Torrens, so they decided to go on an adventure to the neighbourhood dairy farm. There they fund a bucket of lovely cream and decided it would be wonderful experience to wallow in. They hopped in, the first licked his lips with delight, and the two swam around with the momentary joy. But the cream is much thicker than water, and soon the frogs were tired. It was time to get out and return to the Torrens.

The first frog kicked and kicked and kicked, but the cream was thick and he could not get out of the bucket. Soon he gave up, licked his lips and drowned in the bucket of cream. The second frog was far more determined. He kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked some more. Eventually the cream turned to butter, and he jumped out of the bucket and returned to the River Torrens. Attitude does make a difference to the outcomes of our lives. “Don’t give up on life, kick on.”

“Effort is a commitment to seeing a task through to the end, not just until you get tired of it.”

At ten minutes to seven on a dark, cool evening in Mexico City in 1968, John Stephen Arkwari of Tanzania painfully hobbled into the Olympic Stadium – the last to finish the marathon.

The winner had already been crowned, and the victory ceremony was long finished. So the stadium was almost empty as Arkwari, alone, his leg bloody and bandaged, struggled to circle the track to the finish line. The respected documentary filmmaker, Bud Greenspan, watched from a distance. Then, intrigued, Bud walked over to Arkwari and asked why he had continued the grueling struggle to the finish line.

The young man from Tanzania answered softly, “My country did not send me nine thousand miles to start the race. They sent me nine thousand miles to finish the race.”

In the northeastern hills outside Kyoto, Japan there is a mountain known as Mount Hiei. That mountain is littered with unmarked graves which mark the final resting place of the Tendai Buddhist monks who have failed to complete a quest known as the Kaihogyo. The quest is a 1,000-day challenge that takes place over seven years. If a monk chooses to undertake this challenge, this is what awaits him…

During Year 1, the monk must run 30 km per day (about 18 miles) for 100 straight days.

During Year 2, the monk must again run 30 km per day for 100 straight days.

During Year 3, the monk must once more run 30 km per day for 100 straight days.

During Year 4, the monk must run 30 km per day. This time for 200 straight days.

During Year 5, the monk must again run 30 km per day for 200 straight days. After completing the fifth year of running, the monk must go 9 consecutive days without food, water, or rest. Two monks stand beside him at all times to ensure that he does not fall asleep.

During Year 6, the monk must run 60 km (about 37 miles) per day for 100 straight days.

During Year 7, the monk must run 84 km (about 52 miles) per day for 100 straight days. (52 miles per day!) And then, he must run 30 km per day for the final 100 days.

The sheer volume of running is incredible but there is one final challenge that makes The Kaihogyo unlike any other feat…During the first 100 days of running, the monk is allowed to withdraw from the Kaihogyo. However, from Day 101 onwards, there is no withdrawal. The monk must either complete the Kaihogyo … or take his own life. Because of this, the monks carry a length of rope and a short sword at all times on their journey.

In the last 400+ years, only 46 men have completed the challenge. Many others can be found by their unmarked graves on the hills of Mount Hiei.

3 Lessons on Mental Toughness and Commitment

1. “Complete or Kill.”

The Marathon Monks are an extreme version of the “complete or kill” mentality. But you can take the same approach to your goals, projects, and work. If something is important to you, complete it. If not, kill it. If you’re anything like me, then you probably have a bunch of half–finished, half–completed projects and ideas. You don’t need all of those loose ends. Either something is important enough to you to complete, or it’s time to kill it. Fill your life with goals that are worth finishing and eliminate the rest.

2. If you commit to nothing, you’re distracted by everything.

Most of us never face a challenge with the true possibility of death, but we can learn a lot from the monk’s sense of commitment and conviction. They have clarified exactly what they are working toward and for seven years they organize their life around the goal of completing the Kaihogyo. Every possible distraction is rendered unimportant.

Do you think the monks get distracted by TV, movies, the internet, celebrity gossip, or any of the other things that we so often waste time on? Of course not.

If you choose, you can make a similar decision in your life. Sure, your daily goals may not carry the same sense of urgency as the Kaihogyo, but that doesn’t mean you can’t approach them with the same sense of conviction. We all have things that we say are important to us. You might say that you want to lose weight or be a better parent or create work that matters or build a successful business or write a book — but do you make time for these goals above all else? Do you organize your day around accomplishing them?

If you commit to nothing, then you’ll find that it’s easy to be distracted by everything.

3. It doesn’t matter how long your goal will take, just get started.

On Day 101, the Tendai monks are thousands of miles and 900 days from their goal. They are setting out on a journey that is so long and so arduous that it’s almost impossible for you and I to imagine. And yet, they still accept the full challenge. Day after day, year after year, they work. And seven years later, they finish.

Don’t let the length of your goals prevent you from starting on them.

You have the opportunity to choose a goal that is important to you and the privilege of failing with very little consequence. Don’t waste that privilege.

The biggest lesson that the Tendai monks offer for everyday people like you and me is the lesson of commitment and conviction.

Imagine the sense of commitment that the monk feels on Day 101. Imagine what it feels like to embrace the final 900 days of that challenge. Imagine what it feels like to accept a goal that is so important to you that you tell yourself, “I’m going to finish this or I will die trying.”

If you have something that is important to you, then eliminate the unrelated and unimportant tasks, get started no matter how big the challenge, and commit to your goal.

Every big challenge has a turning point. Today could be your Day 101. Today could be your Day of Commitment.

More about the Marathon Monks: https://jamesclear.com/mental-toughness-marathon-monks

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Perlman was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. He walked painfully, yet majestically, until he reached his chair. Then he sat down, slowly, put his crutches on the floor, undid the clasps on his legs, tucked one foot back and extended the other foot forward. Then he bent down and picked up the violin, put it under his chin, nodded to the conductor and proceeded to play.

But just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room.

Many in the audience figured that he would have to get up and limp his way off stage to find another violin or gesture to someone to bring him another one.  But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as the audience had never heard before.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. The crowd was on its feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything they could to show how much they appreciated what he had done.

Perlman smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet the audience, and then he said - not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone - "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left." 

-Jack Riemer 

It was the district track meet – the one we had been training for all season, My foot still hadn’t healed from an earlier injury. As a matter of fact I had debated whether or not I should attend the meet, But there I was, preparing for the 3200 meter run.

“Ready…set..” The gun popped and we were off. The other girls darted ahead of me. I realised I was limping and felt humiliated as I fell farther and farther behind.

The first –place runner was two laps ahead of me when she crossed the finish line. “Hooray!” shouted the crowd. It was the loudest cheer I had ever heard at a meet.

“Maybe I should quit,” I thought as I limped on. “Those people don’t want to wait for me to finish this race.” Somehow, though, I decided to keep going. During the last two laps, I ran in pain and decided not to compete in track next year. It wouldn’t be worth it, even if my foot did heal. I could never beat the girl who lapped me twice.

When I finished, I heard a cheer – just as enthusiastic as the one I’d heard when the first girl passed the finish line. “What was that all about?” I asked myself. I turned around and sure enough, the boys were preparing for their race. “That must be it; they’re cheering for the boys.” 

I went straight to the bathroom where a girl bumped into me. “Wow, you’ve got courage!” she told me.

I thought, “Courage? She must be mistaking me for someone else. I just lost a race!”

“I would have never been able to finish those two miles if I were you. I would have quit on the first lap. What happened to your foot? We were cheering for you. Did you hear us?”

I couldn’t believe it. A complete stranger had been cheering for me – not because she wanted me to win, but because she wanted me to keep going and not give up. Suddenly I regained hope. I decided to stick with track next year. One girl saved my dream.

That day I learned two things:

First, a little kindness and confidence in people can make a great difference to them.

And second, strength and courage aren’t always measured in medals and victories. They are measured in struggles we overcome. The strongest people are not always the people who win, but the people who don’t give up when they lose.

I only dreamt that someday – perhaps as a senior – I will be able to win the race with a cheer as big as the one I got when I lost the race as a freshman.

-Ashley Hodgeson

Over the years I’ve been teaching children about a simple but powerful concept – the ant philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way.

What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That’s an important perspective. You can’t be so naïve as to think summer will last forever. Ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we heed that advice? Because it is important to be realistic. In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. Think ahead.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “this won’t last long we’ll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can’t wait to get out.

And here’s the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All that he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all-that-you-possibly-can” philosophy. Wow, what a great seminar to attend – the ant seminar. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

Jim Rohn

If you put a buzzard in a pen six or eight feet square and entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of his ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten or twelve feet. Without space to run, as is his habit, he will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top. 

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash. 

A Bumblebee if dropped into an open tumbler will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself. 

In many ways, there are lots of people like the buzzard, the bat and the bee. They are struggling about with all their problems and frustrations, not realizing that the answer is right there above them 

A knife consisted of two parts, the handle and the blade. The characteristics of the blade are sharp, usually metal, rusty or shiny, useful and potentially dangerous. The characteristics of the handle are blunt, a useful part for the usage of the knife and mostly handled. There are many ways to catch the knife. They are to catch it by the handle, the blade or just duck it.

It’s inevitable that a knife tossed towards a person will spin. Chances of catching it unhurt remains 50/50 unless it is timed to perfection. No matter how you catch hold of it, you may injure yourself or not, but you would still have gotten hold of the experience. So, the knife is experience.

A person will always be confronted with challenges, likened to a person is tossing knives at you. If you know a knife is coming towards you and you duck, you will never get the experience except that you will realize that ducking is the best way not to get hurt.

When knives tossed towards you are caught unhurt, you will feel proud and happy and want to share your experience with others. You’ll remember them and gain more confidence in catching more knives.

Knives will keep coming towards you but when you decide to catch it, luck is not with you and you end up getting yourself injured because you caught it by the blade, you’ll bleed and will be in pain. However the pain will stop and the wound will heal. What is left is a scar on your palm, which you can show your children or grandchildren as proof that you have caught the knife. With this scar, you’ll have stories to share and lessons to teach.

One of the duties of an Outward Bound Instructor, I believe is to toss as many “knives” as possible to their participants and tend to them when they get hurt by facilitating their thoughts and feelings. Enable them to turn this pain into strength as time will heal all wounds. So harness their potentials when they are confident, happy and proud after managing to catch your knives!

When you make it through a big exam, a job interview, a speech in front of the entire student body or a really big upset with a friend, you probably feel relieved – and thankful – that you did! The next time a similar challenge comes along, you have the experience of that “first time around” to draw upon. And so you are better able to believe you can make it through this one. And when you make it through yet again, your insecurity lessens, and your confidence grows greater. Again and again, as you face and conquer the hardships in your life, big and small, you become more and more resilient. Trust that no matter how difficult your life may seem, no matter how much turbulence you run into, you can make it through. Focus not on the problem, but rather on your flight. 

When things are not going right

Don’t give up – just try harder

Give yourself freedom to try out new things

Laugh and have a good time

Open yourself up to love

Take part in the beauty of nature

Be appreciative of all that you have

Help those less fortunate than you

Work towards peace in the world

Live life to the fullest

Create your own dreams and

Follow them until they are a reality

Susan Polis Schutz

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will.

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill.

When the funds are low and the debts are high.

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit.

Rest, if you must – but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns.

As everyone of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow –

You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor’s cup.

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out –

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt –

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –

It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit!

Edgar A . Guest