Struggle Produces Strength

Nobody likes to hear words like struggle, hardship, labor-intensive, or difficult. These words indicate a less-than-ideal situation or scenario. Words like these indicate that the road ahead, at least for a little while, will be challenging and uncomfortable.

Nobody enjoys going through difficult things. Nobody likes being uncomfortable. But, what if we could reframe our perspective about the struggles that we face. Struggles and hard times provide opportunities that easy times do not. Struggles and hard times can be used to develop a variety of skills, abilities, strength, creativity and endurance. During easy periods of our life, we do not need to develop, grow or change. But struggles and hard times provide a need and opportunity for growth and change.

I am not sure how familiar you may be with wrestling or jujitsu, but these two sports provide a great example for blog. You see, in wrestling and jujitsu, competitors struggle and grind through practices everyday. But everyday that they struggle and grind in practice, they are actually developing strength and endurance for the future. The more they struggle and grind today, the better and more prepared they are for tomorrow. The harder they push themselves in the discomfort of today’s practice, the better and more prepared they are for the matches and tournaments in the future.

Athletes of all kinds learn and understand that the hard things like: early morning practices, late night practices, running, sprints, weight training, resistance workouts, and other hard parts of training all have a purpose. They do not really enjoy the grueling work and labor, but they know that it is necessary to compete and succeed.

The same concepts goes for you and me in our lives. There are easy seasons in life. And there are very difficult seasons in life. We do not enjoy going into or being in a hard season in this life. But rather than cower down, or try to avoid these seasons. Why not embrace them? Why not go through them with the attitude of trying to learn and grow through them? What if going through hard times with a different attitude leads to greater growth and a better perspective about the future? What if learning through a struggle allows you to help and encourage others when they are going through difficult times?

Nobody likes to struggle. Nobody likes to work hard. Nobody likes to be uncomfortable. Nobody likes to go through storms and face challenges in this life. However, if you can change your perspective and are willing to learn, then the struggles that you face will produce strength, endurance, and character.