[00:00.67]Passage 80. Success Is a Choice

[00:06.14]All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks

[00:13.90]that crop up every day.

[00:15.98]If we expect that life won’t be perfect,

[00:18.28]we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit.

[00:20.69]But even if you are strong enough to persist through the obstacle course of life and work,

[00:26.27]sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.

[00:31.52]Whether it’s financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones,

[00:36.55]or some other traumatic event in your life,

[00:39.40]these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself

[00:42.02]and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.

[00:44.98]Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time.

[00:49.79]Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner.

[00:56.58]To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.

[01:00.95]But you must recognize that history full of examples of men and women

[01:05.44]who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that

[01:08.72]they easily could have crushed their spirit and left them lying in the dust.

[01:12.33]Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God.

[01:17.03]Abraham Lincoln overcame a difficult childhood,depression, the death of two sons,

[01:22.62]and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably our greatest president ever.

[01:27.62]Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age.

[01:33.20]Franklin Roosevelt had polio.

[01:35.83]There are endless examples.

[01:37.91]These were people who not only looked adversity in the face

[01:41.51]but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances

[01:45.78]and were able to move ahead.