Fact of life I wonder why anyone argues about: we grow mainly through hard times and challenges.

I don’t know much or believe much in research for most of the things that have that word attached to them are contrary to what I experience physically. Experience is practical education at its best and theory is what many people understand from the mouth of teachers standing in front of a chalkboard. I from experience agreed 100% with the above assertion for I passed through that route and still doing. Nothing conditioned the head and mind like it.

I see it as equivalent to learning how to drive in an open field with a driver besides you to learning from a YouTube video. You can learn how to do anything from both sources but the fact is in doing part of the whole thing and doing it well for that matter in the shortest possible time. Hardship and many challenges might come at any time from anything or angel, we are here on earth and the mindset one uses to tackle it is what matters in the end. Concentrating on the important aspect of it which to me is facing whatever is causing the hardship or people behind it while handling whatever is thrown at you at the same time.

One musician nicknamed it Suffering and Smiling. If you're passing through a hard time or challenge and you are not handling it well by facing them well, you will end up compounding the whole issue, compounding your fears and the situation instead of solving them. The reality is that once you refused to shift ground for your problems, that is when you start getting hold of it instead of it getting the upper hold on you. Fear heap on things that cause them not removing them if you allow it to fester.

It is usually at the hour of fear that we know the true stuff we are made of. At this hour, confusion terms being our bedmate, we seem to be open to all manners of solutions from all manners of people that we found it extremely hard to decipher true friends from masquerading ones and that’s usually when we prolong our stay in that arena of misery. People are mostly opportunist that doesn’t miss such opening seizing up advantages to move in to benefit from whatever they can grasp while pretending to be gunning for your interest.

Seen and unseen enemies can only penetrate when you send signal that you are lost. They move in to help.
I passed through the situation while in prison in China and it lasted for a decade there and still going in a minor way even but it’s I overwhelming it now instead of the other way around. The thing is that initially in prison, confusion will cloud your sense of reasoning trying hard to see the WHY behind what you are passing through. Being in prison inside prison is considered calamity equaling walking death and when your opponents are the authorities, the whole prison is your enemy. You are systematically being skinned alive each minute of the day. Your chances are too slim that when you chose confrontation instead of surrendering Once you know yourself, you stand a hell of a chance of making it. Timidity like Brother Bob said has no place in the realm of power. Cowards have not stopped dying a million times before their actual death.

I decided from day one to face what was facing me in prison and within a few weeks the initial fear I felt turned into anger, to disdain and strength and so were my enemies passing through the same metamorphosis. They were shedding away phases they found themselves when I chose my stand in the conflict but I came out smiling.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength…
Arnold Schwarzenegger

When I got a new identity, the new me like I like to term it, I don’t even know but on reflection, I can pinpoint when it all happened. That moment I said fuck these fears and stop powdering them and coating them in shiny excuses was when they realized that I don’t intend to be anything’s slave. They started knocking before entering on permission for I needed them in manageable quantity as a companion that points the true way.
With time, things change and situations as they say are not permanent, bad, or good. They wear and tear and you need to know when to overhaul and renovate while keeping an eye on each lifespan. Each has an expiry date and anticipating the due dates will help in being a terror to otherwise your terrorist, making each situation your equal companion not being dominated by either.

That’s only when you can truly claim to have matured through hard times, gained a lot of insight from it and difficult challenges.