How Do You See Adversity?

Perspective is a funny thing. Some people see things in a positive light. Other people see exactly the same thing negatively. And how you perceive something will determine how happy you are or not.

I heard a story recently about Claude Monet that made this point so clear for me. You may know that Monet’s water lily paintings are some of his most famous. Like this one:

 

What you may not know (and what I just found out) was that when Monet painted this, he was suffering from a significant reduction in his eyesight. That very stylized way of blurring his edges didn’t come from an artistic choice he consciously made. No, it came from how he saw the world through his cataracts. Here is another painting from the same time period.

 

One of the things that distinguished Monet as a painter came about because of his failing eyesight. He was often frustrated with his loss of vision, but he did not stop painting. What we got was a way of looking at water lilies no one else had given us.

When faced with adversity you have a choice. You can draw on your emotional strength, your courage, your discipline to push through. Or not. You can dig deep to find those resources, or you can throw your arms up in despair. You can use your faith to help you keep moving forward. Or you can give in the negative chatter running through your brain and accept that you’re done.

We will all face adversity in our lives. For those who push through, greatness is possible. Winston Churchill had a horrible stutter and performed abysmally at school. Helen Keller pushed through deafness and blindness to become a strong promoter of women’s rights. And Wilma Rudolph, the 20th of 22 children, overcame scarlet fever and polio to win three gold medals in track in the 1960 Olympic games.

Changing how you perceive adversity can change the way you deal with it. Are there learning opportunities hidden in the challenges? Will those tough times help you to appreciate the times when things go more smoothly? Are you willing to keep going even when it feels like you’re trudging up a mountain with an elephant on your back?

Even small adversities give you an opportunity to strengthen your resilience. So stop looking at set-backs as just bothersome and aggravating. They are your training. The stronger those resilience muscles, the better able you will be to deal with the big stuff that comes along.