Embrace Your Challenges

Embracing challenges, that’s what I strongly believe the best strategy towards a successful and happy life. Does money bring happiness with it, or does it come with a package of problems? Are you going to become rich as a mean to get rid of your challenges? Well, hear this, research has shown that if you’re born poor, the best chances are that you will stay poor for the rest of your life, and for those who were born rich, the best chances are that they will remain rich. But do the challenges you face depend on the amount of your wealth?

First and foremost let’s tackle one important misconception. The difficulties you are going through in your life are not other people’s mistakes. In fact, it is no one’s mistake, but if you insist about finding one to blame for the mishaps you are facing, then start with yourself. You are a responsible person and you have to have the ability to be a successful deep thinker. With deep thinking, you will be able to leave your world and visit many other magical worlds. Let me explain.

Test you imagination a bit. Look around you, and see the different choices technology has been able to provide for us today, where was all this decades or centuries ago. While growing up, I was always thankful to God that I was born in this day and age, for one reason only. It’s funny, but I couldn’t imagine myself without the modern toilets! Yes, toilets. It began during one of the camping season many years before. Whenever a friend would invite us for a night over, the first question I would ask is about the services facilities. All of us take such things for granted, but believe me, this is a big deal to us all.

But were people decades ago unhappy? Was the unavailability of a modern toilet a major challenge to people in that era? Not at all, they were happy and toilets were not a big deal. For that time, there were other things people perceived as challenges, things we may not even be able to imagine ourselves. Go ahead, ask the elders.

Imaginations allow us to appreciate what we have at hand. By simply imagining us at a different period would make us feel good about this time of life. I can’t imagine myself without my iPhone and I can’t imagine myself driving a boring electric car. This is my time, I love it, and I want to embrace it. But, life at this day and age does have extreme difficulties for us all to face. Walls of obstacles are in front and at times we have to battle swimming against the current with barely any swimming skills.

It’s not because you’re poor, or because of your wealth, that your responsibilities are massive. Whoever you are, and whatever you do, you are struggling every day to just get by. I know because you’re not alone, everyone is struggling each and every day. A friend of mine once told me he wishes that he were so rich so that he would pay himself out of all the troubles of life. My response to him was simple, the poorer you are, the luckier you are. He questioned my judgment, but I had an answer awaiting.

As a Muslim, I believe in judgment day, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, has told us that the poor man would have nothing to be judged on and would thus be the first to enter Heaven. The more you have, the more God will judge you and your financial decisions. Become a strong believer, to know how you can use challenges to your benefit.

Thus, since there is no way around challenges, we might as well become friends, and find ways to be happy while accompanying each other every single day of the rest of our lives.

I recently fell on my bicycle and had to undergo and shoulder injury that ruled me out of sports for 7 months. If a day passes by and I don’t workout, my diabetes shoots up the ceiling. I can’t carry my kids, and I can’t have a good night sleep because of the metal plate inserted to keep the bones in place. Still, that won’t stop me from smiling, and it won’t stop me from finding ways to embrace my kids without carrying them around. I still have a million other things to thank God for, and that’s a million other reasons for happiness.

Enjoy life my friends, go through hardship, and remember, if you want things to be done, you are better off doing them yourselves!