“It’s not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.” – Zig Ziglar
The night is dark and the seas are rough. A huge storm is raging and fierce waves crash against the rocks with explosive force. A piece of driftwood is picked up by the waves and splinters into a thousand pieces as it smashes into the rocks.. But amid all this chaos is a beacon of calm. A slender white lighthouse stands tall and strong amid the destructive power of wind and waves and beams out its warning signals to passing ships to remain clear of the rocks all around it. Once the storm passes all is calm and serene as the waves gently lap at the rocks below the lighthouse and there is no evidence of the frightening destructive power of the night before.
In life you want to be the lighthouse in the storm. You want to be the person who remains strong and steady even as chaos and confusion rages all around you. You can cope with the situation because you know your own inner strength and you can dig deep from within your mental resources to cope with all that life throws at you. And, just like the lighthouse, once the storm passes, nobody would ever know from looking at you that anything bad or frightening had ever happened.
We all have many storms to deal with in life but it is how we deal with them that is important. It does not matter to the storm whether we stand strong like the lighthouse or whether we panic and crumble when the going gets tough. But it matters to us and it matters to those close to us who rely on us for protection and leadership in bad times as well as good.
Standing up to adversity makes us stronger and, even if we feel frightened on the inside, the steely determination that has got us through life so far will get us through the storm and allow us to be a shining example to those who follow us. Become the lighthouse.