In the search for success, it is easy to get caught up in a long list of things that need to be done so you can continue to move along your path to achieving your Vision. This journey, however, is not about checking off a bunch of items on a list. If it were, when you hit a roadblock you would simply give up. When you lose focus of your purpose it’s easy to become overwhelmed and forget why you want to fight. It helps to remember that it’s not about what you do, the actions you need to take, but about who you become as a result of what you do. When you embrace resistance, you build the character of who you want to be.
I love to tell the story of the “Farmer’s Donkey. It hit home for me at a turning point in my life, when I knew who I wanted to be but was struggling to get there.
“The Farmer’s Donkey”
A farmer goes out one morning to find his donkey has fallen into an old well. The farmer sees no way possible to get the donkey out. So he decides to fill up the well to avoid any other animal from falling into it. He knows this will bury the donkey, but it is the only option he has.
So he grabs a shovel and begins to throw dirt into the hole on top of the donkey. The donkey becomes rather upset, brays, shakes the dirt off his back and stamps his feet in response.
Of course this upsets the farmer. There is nothing more he can do to save the donkey, so he continues to throw shovels of dirt onto the donkey. The donkey continues to bray, shake the dirt off his back and stamp his feet. After some time, the farmer realizes as a result of the donkey shaking off the dirt and stamping his feet, the donkey has now raised himself up high enough to jump out of the hole.
Embrace Resistance
At that turning point in my life where I knew who I wanted to be but was struggling to get there, I felt like this donkey. I was trying to get out of a hole I was caught in and I felt like life was simply trying to bury me in that hole. But I didn’t give in. I fought. I fought with every part of me that I had, and my fight strengthened me so that I could finally walk out of that hole. It was then that I realized it was the very things that I thought were going to bury me that actually strengthened me and helped me become the person I wanted to be.
As you work toward your Vision, you will face many difficulties and challenges. While these challenges may seem to you as efforts to keep you from ever achieving your goals, they strengthen you. They help redirect you. Through them you learn skills that will serve you all along your path to your success. They make you the person you need to be to be able to achieve your goals.
You are in control of your life and how you react to the obstacles you face. You are only responsible for what you can do. The key is that you do everything with purpose. As you do everything with purpose, no matter what blocks your path, you become the person you are meant to be.
So don’t give up!
Embrace resistance. See how your challenges help mold you into who you want to become. It isn’t the easy actions that create your character. You create your character during the tough times by working hard to pull through. Then you become who you want to be.
