Ever hear of Pete Strudwick? Born circa 1930, with legs that ended in stumps just past the ankles, a left arm that had only one thumb and a finger, and a right arm ending at the wrist, after his mother contracted Rubella - he has gone on to become a marathon runner who has already run 25, 000 miles. How was Pete Strudwick able to successfully run Pike’s Peak, one of the most difficult marathons in the world, even though he had no hands and no feet? While at the other extreme, people who had fabulous successes like Marilyn Monroe or Ernest Hemingway ended up destroying themselves.
Recently, researchers in several different fields have discovered that people who have experienced seriously adverse events frequently report that they were positively changed by the experience. The research suggests several processes that may account for these reports of benefit: purposeful changes in life structure, changes in views of others and the world that result from the experience of vulnerability, the receipt of needed support, and the search for meaning in adversity. ‘Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant,’ Horace.
In Pete’s book, Come Run with Me, which is a diary of his training for the 1972 Pikes Peak Marathon, Chapter 3 starts like this: ‘The man who will make the most progress is the man who is willing to pay the biggest price. In racing, as in life, good genes help, but they only get you just so far. Rich parents are handy too, but they can only buy you so much. Beyond that point, every improvement carries a price tag, and in distance running, it’s counted in miles of training. You pay in advance for speed and endurance.’
So I ask you, what’s the difference between the haves and the have-nots? What’s the difference between the cans and the cannots? What’s the difference between the dos and the do nots? Why do some people overcome horrible, unimaginable adversity and make their lives a triumph, while others, in spite of every advantage, turn their lives into a disaster? Why do some people take any experience and make it work for them, while others take any experience and make it work against them? What’s the difference that makes the difference in the quality of life?
People who succeed do not have fewer problems than people who fail. The only people without problems are those in cemeteries. It is not what happens to us that separates failures from successes. It is how we perceive it and what we do about what ‘happens’ that makes the difference.
Recently, researchers in several different fields have discovered that people who have experienced seriously adverse events frequently report that they were positively changed by the experience. The research suggests several processes that may account for these reports of benefit: purposeful changes in life structure, changes in views of others and the world that result from the experience of vulnerability, the receipt of needed support, and the search for meaning in adversity. ‘Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant,’ Horace.
In Pete’s book, Come Run with Me, which is a diary of his training for the 1972 Pikes Peak Marathon, Chapter 3 starts like this: ‘The man who will make the most progress is the man who is willing to pay the biggest price. In racing, as in life, good genes help, but they only get you just so far. Rich parents are handy too, but they can only buy you so much. Beyond that point, every improvement carries a price tag, and in distance running, it’s counted in miles of training. You pay in advance for speed and endurance.’
So I ask you, what’s the difference between the haves and the have-nots? What’s the difference between the cans and the cannots? What’s the difference between the dos and the do nots? Why do some people overcome horrible, unimaginable adversity and make their lives a triumph, while others, in spite of every advantage, turn their lives into a disaster? Why do some people take any experience and make it work for them, while others take any experience and make it work against them? What’s the difference that makes the difference in the quality of life?
People who succeed do not have fewer problems than people who fail. The only people without problems are those in cemeteries. It is not what happens to us that separates failures from successes. It is how we perceive it and what we do about what ‘happens’ that makes the difference.
‘Things do not change; we change,’ Henry David Thoreau.
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