As with all of the final projects, this took multiple attempts, much to the amusement of my son who was playing Destiny on his Xbox just behind me. I tried over and over to get these Fortune Cookies in view, in focus, with proper collision and standout contrast. I nearly gave up, but I had no backup plan.
This exercise was a living example of the challenges we can face day to day. Yet, I learned so much while working through the difficulty of bringing my vision to life. I'm thankful it was hard and I'm grateful that I had no alternative. While my son was saying, "mom, why don't you just give up," I could honestly respond with, "because I intend to figure this out and make it work." I might have suffered temporary defeat, but I knew that if I stuck with it, thought about what I learned with each try, made corrections and kept at it, I would not succumb to permanent failure. Quite the contrary, I would be richly rewarded. As one of the fortune cookies in this shot says, "Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb about." Through trial and error, in this instance, I certainly progressed my intelligence.
One of my favorite quotes about adversity is by Napoleon Hill, "Each adversity brings with it the seed of equivalent advantage." You know the first several times I looked at that, I read, "good things can come out of each difficulty." Then one day, it suddenly dawned on me that I had it all wrong. In fact, Hill's view (and it's somewhat Biblical) was this: imagine a scale with your troubles on one side and the possible good outcomes from those difficulties on the other side; that scale will balance. Say what?
"Instead of shame and dishonor, you shall have a double portion of prosperity and everlasting joy." Isaiah 61:7
It is fantastic to imagine that out of every challenge, difficulty or seeming defeat there is the opportunity for equal goodness or in the Biblical view, we get double for your trouble. It is only the opportunity, however, we must find the advantage. There is an art in discovering that advantage. It requires us to open our minds to possibilities versus limitations. Rather than run from adversity, therefore, I say - embrace it. Be courageous. Seek out challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. You can only become wiser, more talented, more knowledgeable. For it is true that "We acquire the strength we have overcome." Ralph Waldo Emerson
My perspective: Try. Fail. Learn. Revise. Try harder. Fail more. Learn anew. Celebrate vibrantly. Then revise and repeat.
Blessings.
Today's Photo: Celebrating Adversity
ps: This was a random bunch of fortune cookies that arrived with our latest Chinese take out. The other fortune you see here is, "Happiness is not pleasure, it's victory."
"My experience has taught me that a man is never quite so near success as when that which he calls 'failure' has overtaken him, for it is on occasions of this sort that he is forced to think. If he thinks accurately, and with persistence, he discovers that so-called failure usually is nothing more than a signal to re-arm himself with a new plan or purpose. Most real failures are due to limitations which men set up in their own minds. If they had the courage to go one step further, they would discover their error." Andrew Carnegie as discussed with Napoleon Hill
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