Weekly Weigh in: Embracing Challenges: The Path to Personal Growth and Resilience

Life is an ever-changing journey filled with ups and downs and it's the challenges that we encounter that mold us into the human beings that we become. Today I want to talk about the impact of challenges when it comes to personal development and resilience, I want to talk about how they provide opportunities for learning and growth. Because challenges are inevitable, and how we approach them does make a difference. Then I'll ask you to weigh on how challenges molded you into the person you are today. 

How Do We Grow Anyway?

Being face to face with our challenges is important for someone to grow. It really is, our obstacles slow us down and when to keep us from learning valuable life experiences. You can't learn much from experiences if nothing happens in life. You can't grow without being given the opportunity to grow. It's a bit like a plant in a pot, you don't know if you can grow or handle the soil if you don't get put into a new pot. Sometimes yeah, you'll lose a leaf or a petal, but you can learn and still grow. That's how we are as humans growing machines. 

My Story About Growth and Resilience

Hearing your mom is going to need brain surgery when you're a 16-year-old is a huge earthquake in your life. The thought about anyone having brain surgery makes your own brain swim with thoughts and emotions makes you overloaded, and makes you stop everything in your tracks. I did just that I quit school just to be with my mom. Unaware of how much my life would change right after her surgery.

Quitting school and my mom's brain surgery to remove a cyst (noncancerous) off of her brain was a huge challenge for me, and that was even before she had her surgery. I had no clue what the road ahead of me was and how it'd make me grow. 

The day of my mom's surgery was emotional. I wasn't allowed to be with her or my aunts when she had her surgery, which was well over two hours away. I was forced to stay home, where I had no clue what was going on, this was before people used cell phones regularly. The only way that someone could get ahold of someone else, for the most part, was by means of a landline.

The surgery went well, but there was something that I wasn't told about as an after-effect, not really a complication, but an after-effect was her short-term memory loss. She'd forget that my sister and brother went to school any little things like that. Thinking about resuming life, and going back to school right away was the least on my mind. 

My mom eventually got better. Her memory is back to normal. She can remember things that I forgot about. Sometimes I forget that she even had surgery and this period in her life. I eventually finished school through adult education, in only a little over a month (most people take a bit longer to complete school). I'm now able to be more patient with others when they say they forgot something I told them or a memory that they have. While yes, a downfall to that is, I've learned to repeat things, just in case they don't remember what I've said before. The repeating things apparently get people a bit annoyed, but only if they knew what I went through years before.

Now that I look back on this point in my life, I see the growth, I see the lessons I've learned. Sometimes I almost forget where I learned to repeat what I've said before from, as it's so ingrained into my memory back. The tragic moment that shocked and surprised me, has made me grow a lot. More than I thought I'd need to grow. 

Life Offers opportunities and Not Challenges

Let's take the thought of life offering challenges out of our vocabulary, but instead, lets call them opportunities for growth and to learn from. I know it sounds crazy to think about life at the time something happens, that it's not a challenge, but an opportunity to grow, because it doesn't feel like there's much growth happening when something happens or so that we think. But if we called them opportunities to grow rather than a challenge, roadblock, or whatever it may be, life we may learn even more lessons.

Looking back on all the challenges in life, you can still grow and learn from them. If we make a list of everything that you would call a challenge, and now reframe them as growth opportunities. It for sure doesn't change the fact that life was hectic and possibly even depressing then, but it can now be a time to think, "What did I learn from this opportunity?" and "What ways can I grow now that I didn't think that I could grow before!  It's all about positivity! 

Conclusion

It's time for you to weigh in, when were some times in your life when you had a growth opportunity? It's great to empower other people and let them know that they can grow and learn from almost any opportunity. Learning from others shows growth. Don't worry about playing life safe, oppertunities happen no matter what happens.