The Role of Difficulty
Never complain to others. Try to utilize your own mind, and
you will certainly achieve anything you want to in life.
In his book, Self-Help, published in 1859, the Scottish author and reformer Samuel Smiles rightly observes: ‘It is not ease but effort, not facility but difficulty that makes man.’ This statement is based on a natural fact and history has proved its veracity. All those men who attained greatness, regardless of which walks of life they came from, were the products of difficulty and not of facility. They faced challenges and emerged as super-achievers.
But the question is why difficulty has a greater role to play in the building of a personality than facility. The reason is traceable to one of the laws of nature. It is this law of nature that is responsible for bringing about this result.
The fact is that all of our actions, big or small, are directly related to our minds. It is the mind that directs all the activities of our personality. The human mind is greater than all the great things of the universe: it has mind-boggling qualities. It is the mind that is the master of the human personality, as it controls all of our activities. Studies show that all our performances depend totally on our minds. The mind has unlimited reserves of energy. When we decide to do anything, the mind at once releases energy and we perform with the aid of this energy. The mind is the prime source of energy and whatever we do can only be done with the help of this energy. If we choose to do some easy task, then the mind will release a lesser amount of energy. And, if we decide to do some difficult or great task, then the mind will release a greater amount of energy.
The building of a personality depends on one’s own efforts. If one is an easy-going person then he is bound to receive lesser energy from his mind and the result will be that his personality will become a weak personality. If one is ambitious and chooses to embark on a great task, then certainly his mind will release a greater amount of energy, the result of which will be that he will develop a strong personality.
Everyone is born with the same mind that is full of energy. But some people fail to utilize their energy and die without developing their personalities. The other kind of people are those who set a great task as their goal. Thus, their minds release a greater amount of energy for the performance of this task, and so they become super-achievers.
Man himself is the master of his destiny. This saying is true, but not in the mysterious sense. It all depends on how much a person has unfolded his mind and how much energy the mind has released. One achieves greater or smaller successes in life depending on how much energy one’s mind releases. Every man is a self-made man. But the quantum of success depends on one’s own planning. Wise planning makes one a superman, while unwise planning makes one lag behind in life.
The mind of a man is like a great water reservoir. Opening the gate of this reservoir depends on one’s target. If one’s target is an ordinary target then the mind will open the door of energy on a lesser scale. But, if the target is a high one, the mind will open the gate of energy on a higher scale. It is this difference that decides the level of one’s achievement.
Never complain to others. Try to utilize your own mind, and you will certainly achieve anything you want to in life.
