IT IS good to be back! I hope you are all having a splendiferous time! If not do not worry, you will soon, whatever you're going through is only momentarily. This is my first post for 2012, what a long slumber! I have been itching on what topic to write on, and this is it. Here goes...

In life you ought to never take a stop to mean you are finished. Remember that none of us has fully achieved all that we can. That isn’t to say we don’t have it in us to do so. Keep moving, and you will one day arrive at the crossroads between who you are and who you hope to be. But, don’t feel discouraged if every now and then, you have to stop to reassess your current character and learn to accept that person. When you stop though, don’t get stuck and refuse to move. Stopping should always be followed by starting again.

Katinka Hesselink reminds us that we should not give up trying to find our way. But that we should remember that sometimes it takes bending to avoid breaking. You can never learn or achieve anything by running away. We all face failure in our lives at times; whether they are recurring fears, lost opportunities, possibly even moral failures. 

Giving up can lead to regrets. The moment we give up, we have zero chance of a positive result. It is no longer possible to succeed because we have stopped trying. If it is a dream or a goal that is important to us, there is bound to be regrets. But as long as we hold out, there will always be a chance, no matter how slim, of attaining it. As long as we never stop trying, we could succeed against great odds. The times change constantly and unfavourable conditions could become favourable ones in time. The important thing is to hold out until an opportunity arises. Wilma Radolph, as a child overcame polio to become an Olympic sprint champion, she once said “we should never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit”. Indeed! Once we have our dreams in mind, our human spirit will burn within us to achieve them.

Time and again the answer is not immediately obvious. We may find ourselves discouraged by setbacks and a lack of solutions that work. We may have heard this ‘umpteenth’ times, but I’ll say it anyway; hanging on does not mean doing the same thing and expecting different results. It means trying different approaches until we get the results we want. There is much truth in Nietzsche’s famous saying, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” It is always that extra mile that we run that causes our endurance to grow. The greater the adversity we handle, the greater our capacity to cope with difficulty in the future. If we give up at the first sign of trouble, we will never learn to endure hardship. And if we do not learn to endure hardship, we will never be able to handle more than we possibly could. Only by not giving up can we break through our barriers and grow.

In the face of adversity, our mind usually goes first and convinces us that we cannot succeed. What is sad is that people usually give up when they are just about to reach their goals. If only they had hung on a little longer or put in a little more effort. But this does not have to be your story. As long as you never give up and never stop trying to find innovative solutions, you can overcome your challenges.

The word ‘persistence' like the word ‘determination' is very important in our lives. Why? Because losing heart is not a good enough reason for giving up. ‘Being persistent' means, in this context, not giving up simply because we have lost heart. We are often tempted to give up when we are disappointed, when things do not go according to plan. 

But do not make the mistake of thinking that a disappointment is a dreadful thing. Of course you can't plan your disappointments. You can't plan on the basis that life will be rosy. But that’s not the end, hang on! Don’t give up! There is surely something in that dream or goal that’s worth holding on to. Find it and hang on to it.

Rick Warren in his best selling book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ explains chapter four of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians found in the bible, Warren affirms that; Paul is saying you need to get the right perspective when you are going through a problem. Don’t look at the temporary problem; look at the long-term reward. Don’t look at the temporary pain; look at the long-term gain. Don’t look at it with the short-term view, “What’s happening to me right now?” Instead, look at the character that you are building because you haven’t given up. You’re hanging in there. In essence, the fact of life is that, “There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.”

Author of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’, Madeleine L’Engle in one of her writings said: “Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.” Keep hope alive and hang in there!

--Ashley