KEEP
STRUGGLING UNTIL YOU SUCCEED
Struggle
has taken an untold number of people around the world to greatness, financial
prosperity and comfort. It is a very important key to success. Unfortunately,
many people do not know this. Even the few, who know, do not use it well to
their benefit.
Often
we here people complaining that they struggle so much, as if struggle were a
bad thing. They cry and pity themselves because they always have to struggle to
get even the smallest things in life. This makes it appear as if struggle were
a bad thing. Furthermore, some people even think that they have to struggle to
get even the smallest things in life because God has abandoned them.
Often,
you here people laughing at others for having to struggle before achieving
their aims in life. For this reason some people see struggle as something
degrading. Hence, they do not want others to know that they are struggling to
get what they wish to get.
The
fact is that struggle is a good thing depending on how we take it. It is truly
said that struggle can make or break us. It can lead to greatness just as it
can bring about failure. If we take a negative attitude towards struggle, it
will become a burden to us, but if we take a positive attitude, it can lead to
tremendous benefit. It is negative to look at struggle as suffering or to fear
and complain about it. On the other hand it is positive to see it as a part of
life and a stepping stone to achievement. Taken this way, it will serve as
challenge and can therefore become an asset.
Nothing
worthwhile comes without some amount of struggle. Struggle has taken some
people to great heights. Students will easily pass their exams, be they
promotion or competitive, if they learn how to struggle. Whether you are a
business man, a teacher or a leader, your success will come from struggling.
In
every calling, profession, walk of life, one needs to struggle in other to
succeed. Hence we struggle to get a sound education, good health, riches, and a
rise in position, to gain recognition or become great. We must struggle to get
happiness in our homes, discipline ourselves, choose our priorities, and modify
our desires and ambitions, when we find that they conflict with those of
others. So you see that all circumstances of life demand that we struggle. In short,
life from birth to death is a struggle. We stop growing when we stop struggling.
Through
struggling, we grow, we expand, we develop, we progress, and we become wiser
and stronger if we handle it rightly. Strength, be it physical or mental, can
only be gotten through struggle. For example, your muscles can only become
strong if they are out to constant use.
The
trees in the forest offer a great example of what struggle can do. In the thick
forest where it is hard to reach sunshine, the trees grow tall because they
struggle to reach the sun. But because they are heavily protected against
wings, they are soft. Meanwhile, the trees or shrubs on the hill tops are
resistant since they face daily opposition from the wind and other adverse
effects of the weather. As they are twisted forwards and backwards, they
develop resistance. This is the same with man, the more man struggles, the more
resistant he becomes.
Of
course, no one can deny that there is pain in most forms of struggle, but life
has thought us that every pain comes along with seeds of something useful.
Hence all your pains, disappointment, hardships etc are an opportunity for you
in disguise. Success is achieved by those who try and those who struggle.
Failure is a stranger to such people. In fact, a person only fails in life when
he stops struggling. A person who knows the benefit that is derived from
struggling, considers what others will see as failure or suffering only as
temporary defeats that can be overcome by struggle.
There
are no barriers, no difficulties, no obstacles that cannot be overcome by
struggle. Through struggle our minds are sharpened, through struggle, our
imaginations are quickened, through struggle even our faith in God is built and
through struggle, our will power is strengthened. Our imagination will remain
dormant unless there is a necessity to sharpen it and that necessity is
provided by struggle.
The
strength of our character can be known from the number of times we stand up and
charge forward despite how many times we have fallen before then. When there is
a crisis, those who have stood the test of struggle are usually chosen as
leaders to take the rest of the people out of it.
History
abounds with outstanding examples of men who and women who have left their mark
in this world because of their ability to struggle.
One
of Africa’s most illustrious sons, Kwame Nkrumah, struggled tremendously throughout
his life before he became prominent. As a student in the United States of
America, he struggled very much to survive. He had very little money and
financial support to take him through his studies but he had to work in order
to satisfy his needs. He worked in the college library and served in the dining
hall during school time. During holidays, he sold fish in the streets of New
York. Often, he washed dishes in restaurant and served as waiter on ships. He
also worked in factories. Once he did not have money for lodging, he took to
the streets, until one day he almost died of cold.
It
needed a man who could struggle like Nkrumah to make it. Even when he was in
London, Nkrumah remained poor; he could not afford money for food and lodging.
He used to go to the dustbins and pick up thrown away heads of fish to make
food for himself and his friends. Sometimes he survived because his landlord
gave him food free of charge. Yet he never gave up on his studies. He still
obtained a bachelor’s degree in theology and two masters’ degrees in Education
and philosophy.
Back
in Ghana, he did not stop struggling. He made use of the strength he had gained
through struggle in the United States and Britain. Hence he struggled for independence
of his country. It was a hard struggle in the course of which he was even
imprisoned. But his struggle yielded fruit and he won independence for his
country and became the first president.
One
thing to be noted about struggle is that it is a life-long process. It does not
end with one success or even with a few of them. Struggle comes day by day, our
by hour, minute by minute and second by second. No one escapes struggles. The
big and small, the rich and the poor, the clever and the dull, the weak and the
strong all have to struggle.
We’re
born to struggle.
Throughout
life, struggle!
Struggle
to eat,
Struggle
to know, struggle to know,
Struggle
to get what you want,
For
through struggle, man achieves his aims.
As you
struggle to along, do not be afraid of anything like failure, for,
Life is a journey. On your way, you
may tumble once, rise and proceed
You may even stumble again, rise and
proceed
You may yet stumble again the third
time, rise and still proceed. For in the course of a journey, a man may stumble
and fall many times before he arrives. That’s how life is made, that’s how life
will remain. Therefore, fear not a fall, but struggle on and on until you get
to where you are going.
ELAMBO NEVILLE TAMANJONG
WRITER/ACTOR/POET
