I Just Bought My Elephant

Building a “Resilient” Self Resilience is adapting well in the face of adversity. It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences, dealing with things stressing you a putting you down and chase that BIG dream that is so important to you. Being resilient does not mean that we become immune to stress, or that the difficulties vanishes, it actually prepares to you deal with it and yet achieve your dream. It involves beliefs, behaviors and thoughts that can be learned and developed by anyone. Being resilient is important for us to achieve our Dream of Prosperity. This would mean that we question and relook at our beliefs, thoughts and actions. Build the capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out. Build confidence in one own self and in our strengths and abilities. Look to solve problems and build the capacity to manage strong feelings, impulses and deal with demotivating influences. “Stubborn Positivity”. In my army tenure, after I completed my training, I joined my battalion when they were posted eye ball to eye ball with the enemy on a treacherous mountainous terrain, I experienced many life changing experiences while in the army. These have been my teachers and the lessons learnt can possibly never been forgotten. Like the very first encounter with death; which I survived to tell the tale. No it was not a heroic assault on the enemy post or anything of that sort; it was peace times after all. As a young newly commissioned infantry officer, I was going to take over the charge of my own post. The journey included a 3 hour of climb at an average height of 17500ft. The air is thinner and the oxygen levels are low. At these heights, the melting snow creates multiple streams that usually make very fast flowing rivers that are not very broad but deep. The water falling from these heights create beautiful water falls but are very rough and dangerous. In the month of Dec, the snow peaks. There is a formation of hard ice below your feet that only get more solid on the beaten track and the ice cold water forms thin to not very solid ice over itself. Moving towards my post, my first independent command, to live all that I had dreamt as a boy, I was in a hurry. 4 Soldiers and I armed with light weapons began the scale upwards on a narrow, single man track. The Himalayas are punishing and a beauty, the foot track we were on had many steep fall and steep climbs from time to time. As we climbed along a deep valley the weather changed suddenly and the entire valley was engulfed in a snow storm. Helplessly we watched the forces of nature engulf us. The resultant “whiteout” situation was bad and visibility dropped to near zero. Undaunted, we inched forward. After almost 2 hours after we reached flat ground. My initial reaction was that it was the post, but no it was not. The snow was beating our faces continuously, the visibility continued to be nearly zero, and we lost our track. We looked around desperately, moved a few feet around to try and find our track again, but we did not. Right from the start of the climb we were edging along the sides of the waterfall. The fall was ferocious was about a 1000 foot or so. As we were looking for our foot track the sound of the water grew louder and louder. As we continued our search, suddenly our leg began slipping. I touched the ground only to realize we were standing on thin ice, directly over the waterfall, with the river water viciously flowing below us. If the ice cracked, we would be swept with the water straight a 1000, feet below. The realization that this could be the end sent a chill down my spine. This was not the way I had planned to die; it had to be glorious death not just an accident. My life changed that moment. I was in trouble, but all that I could see was the soldiers they were looking up to me for my reaction. Without showing my own fear I stated focusing on them, to get them to safety and back to the post. An inner force that was stubborn and made me only think positive engulfed me, and I led the fight back to reverse the situation. I was acknowledging all the risks as I lead the team but my mind stubbornly stayed focused on the desired result. Leading the way ahead we inched back to our track slowly and surely and away from the waterfall. There were times where the snow level crossed our shoulder level. Keeping the team together, acting decisively and keeping the morale of my team high and not allowing them to focus on fear, as a team we made it and celebrated when we reached the post. I termed that state of mind as “Stubborn Positivity. “Stubborn Positivity” is actually a way of life. It is a culmination of your efforts to actualize your dreams with all your enthusiasm, determination that is soaked in faith and belief. It is a state of mind that acknowledging the existence of risks and hurdles, it challenges and defies them. It is a state of mind that brings you to a supreme state where your mind seeks and finds solutions and stubbornly resists attempts to demoralize and destabilize. In such a state of mind you will always have a smile in your mind and heart. If this sounds complicated then make a small start. The next time a situation makes your forehead frown, make a conscious effort to remove the frown immediately, SIMPLY REMOVE THE CURVES ON YOUR FOREHEAD and you will start to feel the positive energy. This could be the start of “Stubborn Positivity” for you. Being “Stubborn Positivity” is the first attitude that you need to acquire to make this