Breaking point or spurring point?

After a strenuous day I felt like throwing in the towel. I felt like the pot of gold was not at the end of the rainbow (or was it me who was not reaching the end of the rainbow?) It was one of those days when you feel the whole weight of the world on your shoulders, a type of day were you even get to the point of believing that stones are deliberately rising out the ground to trip you as you walk past.

When so much weight bears on us, we tend to bend towards breaking point. Doubt creeps into our confidence bank and suddenly we are not sure what we set out to do. When the strain hits, our emotional strings are stretched to twanging point and we are not sure anymore what music our lives is producing.

It is at such time that most of us lose the plot. We turn to the nearest person or item and we vent at them. We run away from addressing the demons in our lives and try to cast out demons we see in the next person. We deny that we have hit a muddy patch because we were not walking carefully; instead we blame someone for switching paths under our feet!

I have learnt in this life that I have lived that progress is like climbing a mountain. The scree and rubble is at the bottom and all trash and rolling stones come to rest there. This is the resting point for those who give up, but wait, the same resting point is a starting point again. So when life rolls you to the bottom of the mountain for the umpteenth time do not take it as your domain, use it as a re start point.

I have learnt in this life that to progress is like going up a hill. Your breath is belaboured, calories are burnt, the body suffers wear and tear and you fight against gravity. To some this would imply giving up and rolling down but the wise man does not read the adverse, instead as they go up, they see improved blood flow instead of suffocation, they see body toning instead of weight loss, and they see strengthening instead of the pain of scratches.

So the man who gives up surrenders because he perceives what is happening to him in a negative manner. He sees death in trying to reach the summit but the man who presses on endures the same conditions but strives on because what they perceive happening to them is in the affirmative. As they breath in short gasps all they imagine is the joy of breathing unpolluted air at the summit. It is the same mountain, two different people and two different endings simply because of the mindset.

So when we turn our pain stops into audit points we are able to gain more mileage. When we turn our blame game into introspection time we gain knowledge about ourselves. When we turn our self-pity into self-drive we discover the hidden courage reserves that have been latent for ages. The fact lies in the mind-set.

I have set my mind to turn all my pain into lessons , I accept that all will not be easy but in all that will hit me I will flip the coin and see the good I can derive from it. I have set my mind to turn all obstacles in my life into hurdles in a steeplechase: items to be leapt on the way to the finishing line and not items at which to abort my race.

Tomorrow, as the sun rises, my life and the race I am living will take lessons even from the thunderous claps that will floor me. I will not throw in the towel but I will wipe the sweat with the detractor’s towel so I can see clearly and keep walking!!