In life you are going to be knocked down, stepped on, and probably destroyed at least once. I don’t know in what direction that it will come from but it will come. It could be something that happens with your business, with a woman, or with your family among other things. But there are going to be times when you are going to take a hit and it’s going to put you out. That is the way of the world. However taking the hit is not what I’m here to talk about nor is it what we should focus on. We all take the hit, but that’s not what’s important.
What’s important is how we rise after we take the hit. Perhaps your business has gone bankrupt, you’re wife left you with the kids, or your name has been disgraced. Like I said above the I don’t know in which direction the blows are going to come from all I know is that they will inevitably come. Every successful person who has achieved much in life was destroyed at least once. They had at least one defining moment that crushed them completely. But this destruction allowed for something else, a renewal.
A Prime Opportunity
I hope I don’t sound cruel in saying this but when you have been destroyed is an opportunity like never before. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again comfort is a liar and the enemy. Comfort keeps more people down and weak than just about anything else that I can think of. When you get destroyed the option of comfort is completely removed from you. Your are thrown to the wolves where there is only live or die. Rise or lose. Only a few daring souls throw discomfort on themselves the way that getting cold cocked by the world can and therefore few who do not suffer greatly develop much.
When you have hit rock bottom you dig deep inside yourself to find strength that wasn’t there. Like when you’re drowning you reach down deep and call on muscles that you didn’t even know you had to get free and get back to the surface. Pain can be channeled into growth. The trite saying is “get better, not bitter”. While it may be trite it is also true. Most people’s greatest growth came from channeling their greatest pain. They used it to fuel them to greatness.
When You Fall
Something else I noticed about those who fell and came back. They always came back greater than before. They doubled down and came back bigger and badder than ever before. Their defeat inspired them to greater strength as it should us all. When you fall down the point isn’t to simple stand back up. Any fool can keep standing up it doesn’t require that much strength. What is truly notable is when someone is knocked down and they stand up stronger than before. Their business goes bankrupt so they start a new one working day and night to make it twice the size and scope of the last one.
Their wife left them so they developed themselves and now date 20 year olds and learned enough networking and rapport building skills to get the judge on his side. They were defeated by their rival and came back so strong they knocked him out in the first round. Every defeat should inspire greater strength, every time you get knocked down you should work day and night to never be knocked down in such a fashion again. And then you should be proactive about addressing any other way you could get knocked down.
Constant Ascension
Like I said every defeat should inspire greater strength. The way to rise up from the ashes like a phoenix bigger and badder than ever is to turn your pain and suffering into fire that fuels your growth and development. You should learn, train, and earn like a madman. And not to get back where to where you were (otherwise you’ll get just knocked back down in the same way) but to get ten times past that. To get twice as strong as you were before. You don’t want to get where you were before, that’d be foolish. You want to shoot past it like a rocket.
It is pain like this that turn the average into great successes. Beware comfort it is an mirage, beware safety it is an illusion. Fight everyday to be the best and excel. Getting hit like this is the only way some ever realize that this is how life works. You either rise or die, adapt or perish. There is no mercy for you in the world. Better to be told this by a friend then learn this from an enemy. Remember when you are knocked down you come back twice as hard, no exceptions.
Summary
This also shows your opponent (whoever they may be) that you are a force to be reckoned with and only getting stronger. It’s like in those old movies. Where a guy would be living in blissful ignorance then get the shit kicked out of him by reality and then turn into a leader of men who can face everything that this world will thrown at him. So turn your pain into strength no matter how hard it is, don’t try to get back to where you were go past it, and understand that life is about constant ascension.
For the actual walking of the path towards rising from the ashes check out the rest of the site. As I don’t know exactly how you may have been hit it’s hard to give practical advice here. However this mindset is critical to making it. There is no middle comfortable path. There is sink or swim, live or die, constant ascension or extinction. Embrace the fight that this world is, eventually you’ll learn to love it in a way.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
