Do we need life challenges to overcome?

Nothing wrong in setting targets & reaching goals, keeps a person on their toes.

First off, one could say “thanks but I can do without them.” In some cases through our wrong decisions/mistakes we create problems that turn into major challenges that have to be overcome or are have such serious effects that they go on throughout our life. In other cases however, I think they are created out of stupidity and could have been avoided had one used his or her logic. To a certain degree we could blame fate for them but we DO tend to create issues where none should exist. Whether or not it’s a question of needing them in order to survive, well, no thanks I can just as easily survive without them leading a much simpler , less demanding existence!

That’s sort of a theological question.

My answer would be “no” . People learn from adversity, which may make them better, but the flip side – that people need adversity to make them live – just isn’t supportable.

A person without challenges may be bland and inexperienced. But that’s fine. They can live their quiet and unchallenged life just as well as anyone else. Requiring adversity to create growth is not logical.

It occurs to me that challenges and achieving them can turn out to be an addictive and unhealthy activity. You master one challenger and you think you’re hot shit, so you confront another, bigger challenge in order to see if you can master it. And they cycle continues but gets worse.

So in some way, confronting and overcoming challenges is like alcoholism or heroin addiction – you keep wanting more, and eventually you die from it.

I think sometimes people make their own hardships, and since they may not be looking objectively at the situation and themselves, they never comprehend. They may blame others, when in fact, their own actions caused the situations that they are in. If people in those circumstances are lucky, they’ll realize that they caused their situations. If they are not, they will never realize that and continue creating their messes.

A boy once approached a guru holding a chrysalis. The guru explained that soon from this cocoon would emerge a beautiful butterfly. The little boy begged the old man for the chrysalis. The old man agreed to give it to him under one condition: that as the butterfly emerged he would only watch, and not touch the butterfly. The boy eagerly agreed and ran home with his prize.
Days passed and the boy watched the cocoon go from milky white to clear, and he could see the butterfly rustling around inside. One day the chrysalis busted open just slightly and he could see the butterfly’s motions become even more frantic.
He watched the butterfly struggle to free itself from it’s prison, making it halfway out of the small slit before stopping to rest. The little boy thought he would just help the butterfly a little and gently popped open the cocoon to free the butterfly.

When the butterfly died the little boy ran to the guru, crying and distraught. “I was only trying to help. Where did I go wrong?” he cried.

“I asked you only to watch as the butterfly freed itself from it’s entrapment. You see, it is the struggle to release itself from it’s prison that strengthens it’s wings and will allow it to fly. Just as it is with the butterfly, in order for us to thrive as humans we must learn to overcome our tribulations. It is the struggle that gives us the strength.”

“To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To be willing to give when there’s no more to give
To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live

And I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star”

“The Impossible Dream” was written by Joe Darion, Mitch Leigh.

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich – yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson