Day 195 - The Challenge

 “It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.”
― Isaac Asimov 

Challenging others is commonplace, and in the best of light someone's mind may change, perhaps they were 'brought down to size' or 'put in their place', whether that is good or not is relative. Challenging ourselves is what leads to deep, inner change, where even the darkness has its benefits, and that kind of change is nothing but good.

Many of us seem to be stuck in one-upmanship for some reason, probably ego, where our sense of self gets some sort of reward for being 'right', and not just for being right but by being more right. Why is that? What's the point of challenging others if we're not even challenging ourselves?

All the time spent on trying to convince others to do this or be that is wasted unless we have the ability to overcome our own difficulties. If a drug addict starts sharing stories of overcoming hardship and someone says, "Why would I listen to that guy? He's been a drug addict his whole life." Well, that's the very person that needs to be listened to because that guy is facing challenges head on, and it's hard, and most of us don't do it. Most of us would rather point a finger outward than look at what's happening inside ourselves.

Instead of going through social media and finding all the messages you want to squash with righteousness, whether that's with a comment or just in your head, it might be a good exercise to use those same messages as pointers back inward, where you say to yourself, "why am I triggered by this?", "what is in me that feels the need to show up with holier-than-thou responses when I could just scroll on by?" or even, "hey, I'm going to support this person, even though I don't necessarily agree."

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.”– Francis of Assisi

Every one of us has obstacles to deal with. Remember that. It might make it easier to challenge yourself to hold back on judgements and to actually look at your own fallible life. It might make it easier to figure out what your unique challenges are, because we're all different. I might have overcome certain adversities that someone else has not been able to, yet. You might have overcome certain adversities that I haven't, yet. We are all teachers and students.

When I think about problems in my world, I no longer think of them as hindrances, I think of them as challenges to face with confidence and the inner fortitude I know is there. You know what happens? More confidence, more acceptance, and the realization that there is nothing I can't do. I no longer have a sense of dread when having to deal with an issue or a person, I boldly stand up and deal with it. My partner, Chris, calls it the 'Julie Here' effect - You definitely don't want an email or phone call from me that starts with Julie here... LOL

I challenge you to challenge yourself. Walk your talk, and look in the mirror reflecting all the things you don't like in others as issues you actually haven't dealt with in yourself. It's eye-opening!

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