We learn our most valuable lessons in life from struggling with our limitations rather than from enjoying our successes

As humans, and especially in the catholic frame of life, we all face occurrences and benefit from a form of empiricism, also called personal experiences. The author purports that the most difficult these would be, the more they tend to befit us. After expounding on a sample of various scenarios, it would be clear that the statement finds wide merits, and I am personally inclined to assent to it.

It is essential to note that the threshold over which a happenstance would be perceived as a struggle heavily depends on the nature of individuals. While some might be affected by the minor mishap, others are sturdier and unless great trouble, don’t feel anything being hard to deal with. Such a feeling, though, irrespectively of the actual vicissitude’s difficulty, truly provides people with great lessons. Indeed, when we struggle with our limitations, we take advantage of our best qualities and deepest resources; and the very nature of each persona can be uncovered. It is a unique way to stress our shortcomings, and leaves scant space for cowardice, complacency or other personal subterfuges we use to conceal them. In straining in the personal or professional frame, not only would we optimise our qualities, but we also combat our inherent flaws with the glimmer that they would vanish once the fight done. These few instances highlight how important it is to be under pressure or duress, for we get to know ourselves with a profundity that wouldn’t have been reachable, had we stayed in our comfortable seat.

« When we embrace struggles, it’s freeing » these few words from Jo Boaler, illustrious writer, captured my view on the issue raised. Enjoying our successes don’t call for such inner journeys, and might even have the reverse effect. Notwithstanding there is no doubt regarding the satisfying taste of our reward’s fruition, I strongly reckon that the relish of such situations tend to be harmful and cause us to be self-sufficient. This phenomenon is easily perceivable in many social strata, and from the most esteemed sport champions to the greatest scholars of our world, there is an underlying pattern that shores up the view put forth: their first thoughts when reminiscing about their life go towards their hardship. At a wide scale, say for a whole country, it is the predicaments in which were mired our forefathers that most undergird our culture, providing then unremitting source of life lessons. Consider the horrid debasement suffered by the Americans under the regime of the Grand Britain. The free spirit and the independence that are nowadays prevalent in the country, and which our society will be ad vitam aeternam imbued with, come from this gloomy tunel they went through, not from the outcome per se.

Another insightful lens from which addressing this topic is by juxtaposing two successes of a very same person, the first without manifest difficulties, nay facile, and the other far harder to reach. There is no one who’d better epitomise this duality than does Liz Hartel. Her first success, which is also the reason for her prominence, was as a reputable jockey. Without undermining this gifted young lady’s astonishing performances, all her achievements were nothing but jejune compared to the insurmountable quandary she had been struggling to overcome a few years after. After a terrible accident, she was indeed supposed to be lame for the rest of her life. As a mettle and resourceful person though, she managed to ride a horse again, which is the most arduous hike of her life. Not only she has learned her most valuable lessons from struggling with her limitations, but this also constitutes a source of inspiration and colourful perspectives for all.

To conclude, while it is true that success is the tip of the iceberg, often then most obvious and then the easiest part to envy or admire, I truly believe that only when struggling with their limitations, will people grow and improve as individuals.