“There is an old Celtic legend that says, just before each person is born, they are allowed to choose every hardship that they would experience during their lifetime. In this tradition, everyone selects the challenges that they would be able to overcome, the situations and conditions that would push them to learn and grow but that would not defeat them.”
I came across this in a guided meditation on Surrender: Letting Go by Jason Stephenson, and it made me realise that most of us had been going about challenges all wrong.
Most times when the word ‘challenge’ comes up, it almost automatically associates with words like deterrent, hindrances or insurmountable, in our mind. But really, a challenge is a demanding or stimulating situation. A challenge is meant to test us and see if we are fit for promotion. It is meant to ‘stimulate’ us for the sole purpose of growth.
It is important to understand what a challenge really is because only then can we know how we have to go about overcoming them. When we see a challenge as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block, it becomes easier to walk towards it with confidence because we are rest assured that once we tackle the stone, we would be able to look down on our present situation from a higher ground.
Now consider how you would act in this very moment if, like that Celtic legend says, you were the one who picked what you are going through right now because with a supernatural, divine eyes, you had seen that you would be able to surmount and overcome that challenge? Would you feel more confident? Would you worry less and go about it with a different mindset? Would you feel like you are in control of your life and the situation?
I bet, you would.
It’s not only the Celts that have such a believe. In the Christian Bible a verse says, “… but God is faithful, who would not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13b.
See that they are saying almost the same thing? Someone has chosen your difficulties, either yourself before you were born or a God in Heaven, knowing assuredly that you would get through it.
It seems as if we are going spiritual, right?
Look, it’s very easy to conceive. People naturally feel comfortable when they believe a higher power is in charge of things in their life, and that’s why many people find solace in religion and spirituality, so that when things get tough, they have someone divine they can turn to.
I see it in a different way.
Spirituality is a state of mind a person reaches when they are in touch with their inner being. It is when you have control over the real you, when you understand that you are more than this body, there is a driving force within you. And the moment you connect with that inner you, you are in a realm of spirituality.
In fact, take note of this, a man who has control of his inner self is more powerful than a man who rules the world but has no control of himself.
That is spiritual.
And the moment you become spiritual, the moment you get in tune with your inner self and learn to control and steer the real you in the right direction, only then can you choose to willingly cede that control over to a spernatural being, if you so wish.
But that is beside the point.
My point is, the moment you are in tune with YOU, then you will understand that, no challenge can overcome you, because it was not designed thus, rather you were meant to use that challenge to elevate yourself.
Check. No one has ever been defeated by a challenge, rather they’ve been defeated by their inability to overcome the challenge–and yes, there is a difference.
The challenge isn’t your enemy. It has nothing against you specifically. It just happens to be in your way to see how determined you are to get to where you are going to. And the really interesting part is–if we should go by what the Celtic legend says–YOU placed the challenge ahead of yourself. So there is no way you designed the challenge to overcome you
But when we don’t understand this, we see the challenge insurmountable, and our inability to overcome it becomes the death of us, not the challenge itself.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that challenges aren’t real. I am not saying that challenges cannot look insurmountable. No, what I am saying is, no matter how huge and difficult they may look and feel, there is a power within us that can help us get through and surmount them.
But we can only access this strength when we realise that we have it. After all, you cannot seek to use something you’re not aware you have. First, you must realise that you have it. Then you can learn how to use it.
It won’t matter if you know how to pray or if you buy all the books that outline the strategies to overcome life’s challenges, if you don’t take control of yourself and see the challenge as a stepping stone, you would waste your energy trying to move the stone out of the way while all you had to do was find a way to climb it.
