Life's Basic Training

How do you handle challenges? Do you learn to adapt and reinvent yourself to meet the challenge? I have some thoughts on this subject when I go live with my Thursday's Thought...

Hello and welcome to today’s Thursday’s Thought. Today’s Thought is about Life’s Basic Training course. Thinking back, I remember the basic training I received for eight weeks in the police academy in the early 1980’s. The training instructors not only wanted to teach me the discipline needed to become a good law enforcement officer, but they also wanted to break me down so that they could rebuild me according to the needs of what all law enforcement agencies and their command staff require. These are two of the underlying premises of your first few weeks, or months these days, of your time in a police academy or in the military for those of you who have gone through military training. Actually, I enjoyed it, as I had always dreamed of a career in law enforcement. It was my dream come true.

However, the idea here is that, I have been thinking about various challenges presented to myself, and others, over the years and comparing these challenges to my state and that of other individuals at the end of the challenge. It’s really interesting to note that, like Basic Training, you are either strengthened and ready for your mission, or you're washed out or pushed back to the beginning to re-experience your training.

Let me begin by talking about challenges. I have been hit with many challenges throughout my life, as you and everyone else has; however, the one thing I can say now that I made it out the other end, is that I am much better for it. Of course, life continues to throw odd little challenges every day; however, I’ve come to realize that it is my responsibility for creating the circumstances for the challenges, and my choice as to whether I want to deal with them.

Any time that you remain quiet and still, challenges will rarely appear. That’s because, you're not moving and your space in life is stagnant. You’re in your comfort zone. However, true challenges only occur once you decide to move forward. When you move, you create an imbalance that must be rebalanced, thus creating friction. Once you gain some momentum, just as when a car begins moving, the friction becomes inconsequential and balance returns to accommodate your new state of forward movement out of your comfort zone.

Next, there is education. Every time you move toward a goal, your effort and movement is acknowledged and it immediately establishes a path of travel. It can literally define future events and situations based on your current decisions and actions. However, this path can be seen as the curriculum necessary to prepare you for any ultimate objective. Indeed, there may not be signs to tell you whether you should pursue this path; however, you will be presented with lessons along the way to ensure that you learn what is necessary for your ultimate chosen objective.

Finally, let’s talk about reinventing ourselves. We are always ready to hold on to who we are and what we have. It is a safety zone and a way to keep things comfortable and easy for us. But sometimes this safety zone can stifle us and eventually kill our will. The difficulty in handling challenges is in our ability to adapt and adjust to the circumstance and to a new view of ourselves. In every challenge comes an opportunity for growth and change. This growth is a way to prepare us for our future, no matter where we are in our lives, and to open new doors for experience and further growth. Once you learn to embrace this growth and your new self, you will be able to move forward in life with more ease.

So, what's next? Challenges provide us with an opportunity for change. They make us stronger. They force us to use our creativity to devise new ways of doing things. They help us to grow and be better than we were before. Just as I spoke of education a few moments ago, we must learn to adapt as challenges present themselves. Don't allow the challenge to define you. But, as you move through the circumstance and conquer the challenge, identify the important issues and benefits for yourself and incorporate those lessons into your life.

Accept, adapt, and become a newer and better person with every new lesson. As you look back on your life, especially as you grow older, you'll find that you're not only a better person, but you can also say that you made it to your objective!