You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don't go deep enough to tap the divine mind within you.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that challenges can lead to personal growth and discovering inner strength.
Orison Swett Marden's quote speaks to the transformative power of adversity. It suggests that challenges push us to discover abilities and solutions we might not have imagined in times of ease. By reflecting on past difficulties, we understand that we have the potential to overcome obstacles, yet in our daily lives, we often fail to delve deep into our own capabilities and creativity, restricting our growth.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students facing exams.
Opportunity is latent in the very foundation of human society. Opportunity is everywhere about us. But the preparation to seize upon the opportunity, and to make the most of it, is to be made by every one for himself ... he will be self-made or never made.
We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success.
You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him. What did he get out of them.
Something greater than wealth, grander even than fame — that manhood, character, stand for success, and that nothing else really does.
Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory.
If our dreams are sincere desires to achieve, not mere pipe-dreams, there is something deep within ourselves which comes out to meet them and helps to make them realities.
What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.
Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.
If you play football, there's going to be a 100 percent injury rate. Something is going to be bothering you. So I just try to focus on the things that I can do to help my team.
People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them.
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