How to Create Your Own Adversity

Some people think of adversity as something negative. They believe trying events or circumstances are something to be avoided as if that were even possible. Mistakenly, they believe that adversity is all bad, that it’s not good to have to struggle. Nothing could be further from the truth; adversity is what shapes you.

Real adversity would be the lack of adversity. If nothing causes you to dig deep, to discover how powerful you are, and to overcome difficult circumstances, you never realize what kind of stuff you are really made of. If you are never required to exercise your intestinal fortitude, your courage, your willingness to trudge forward against unimaginable resistance, you don’t develop into the best version of yourself, the you that you are capable of becoming.

Create Adversity

When you don’t have enough adversity, you have to create it for yourself, lest you weaken, wither, and wilt away to something less than who you really are. You have to challenge yourself, stretch yourself, and take risks.

If what you are doing right now is not allowing you to do the purposeful, meaningful work you were put here to do, then you have to create the adversity that comes with actually changing your life in ways that allow you to do what you put here to do. For most of us, this idea itself, and what it means for us, creates adversity.

Are you comfortable where you are now? Are you happy? If this you are, you need new goals,new initiatives, and projects to go with them. If you aren’t petrified by what you write down as your goals, you are not manufacturing real adversity. If you believe you can easily accomplish your goals, you aren’t playing full out.

Growth, development, and progress are vital human needs. We need something to push back against. If you aren’t challenged, you have to challenge yourself.