Who Will Cry When You Die\?: Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari pdfdrive com

19.
See Your Troubles as Blessings
During the life leadership seminars I give, I often ask the participants this
question: “Who would agree with me that we learn the most from our most
difficult experiences?” Inevitably, nearly every hand in the room goes up. Given
this, I often wonder why we, as human beings, spend so much of our lives
focusing on the negative aspects of our most difficult experiences rather than
seeing them for what they truly are: our greatest teachers.
You would not have the wisdom and knowledge you now possess were it
not for the setbacks you have faced, the mistakes you have made and the
suffering you have endured. Once and for all, come to realize that pain is a
teacher and failure is the highway to success. You cannot learn how to play the
guitar without hitting a few wrong notes and you will never learn how to sail if
you are not willing to tip the boat over a few times. Begin to see your troubles as
blessings, resolve to transform your stumbling blocks into stepping stones and
vow to turn your wounds into wisdom.
Like most people, I have encountered my own share of pain as I have
advanced along the path of life. But I always try to remind myself that our
character is shaped, not through life’s easiest experiences, but during life’s
toughest ones. It is during life’s most trying times that we discover who we
really are and the fullness of the strength that lies within us. If you are currently
experiencing challenges of your own, I respectfully offer the following words of
Rainer Maria Rilke, which have helped me greatly when life throws one of its
curves my way:
…have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to
love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a
foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be
given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of
experiencing everything. At present, you need to live the question. Perhaps
you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the
answer, some distant day.

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