Bouncing Back!

The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. –George S. Patton

One of the hardest things to do in life is to bounce back when you have suffered a loss,  failed in business, a relationship or  a competition.  When you spend so much energy and concentration and good part of your time towards achieving, earning, training or in the case of a relationship giving, it can be pretty demoralizing and can cause you to lose faith that you will ever be able to make a come back, and sometimes you just lose any desire to try again!

These are some of the biggest tests that we go through in life, falling and learning to get back up again even when it hurts! My heart goes out to those who have lost everything in a disaster such as the one in Japan’s tsunami this year, loved ones, house, business!  How difficult in such circumstances to gather the courage to get up and to start all over.  It is one thing if you have lived a life such as mine where you have started over so many times that it is almost become a part of your culture.  It is totally another for those who were born, raised and have lived their entire lives in a town, and know nothing other than the reality that surrounds them, and then to have it all vanish in the blink of an eye.

Stories of resilience in situations such as the one stated above are ones that make you feel ashamed when we at times, have been met with a wall in our job, relationship, competition and we fall apart.  Our “problem” pales in comparison and puts us to shame when we see these people pull themselves back up to their feet!  It should motivate us in such a way and spur us on to know with assurance that, if they can do it, so can we!

The greatest opposition to being able to bounce back is within us, when we get so rigid and set in our ways and we don’t allow the light back in after a storm.  It is a matter of believing that it “can be done” and not allowing the fear of failure to settle in or adopting the negative mindset of “I always have this happen and I never win”! There couldn’t be a more false statement!  In life there is no  “always” or a “never”, because change is inevitable!  However, this has largely to do with our attitude.  We can talk ourselves right out of success just as we can convince ourselves that we are totally capable of making it! Isn’t that just awesome!  What power you have right there in your little noggin!

On the positive side, when you hit bottom, there only remains one way to go and that is up!  You have to get back up! What if when you were a toddler and you fell down you decided that perhaps walking wasn’t for you!? You would live your entire life not knowing what getting around on your own two feet was like!  But what spurs you on is that you see that almost everyone else around you are walking around on their feet and so that gives you the faith to keep getting back up.

Don’t listen to those around you when all they can talk about is why they are not able to make it.  Or those who chose to play the “blame game” and justify their inabilities because of everyone else! There are oodles of amazing stories of those who were at the brink of total disaster, lost everything and who have from their previous state gone on to be a great success! They are an inspiration to us all as they prove that, yes, it can be done and it all depends on YOU!

Have you been in a tough spot and then were able to bounce back pull through!  Share your stories here!