Challenge

Someone just asked me if I had any problem. And I did not know what to answer, but finally my answer was “No work, no partner, not enough income, no money, no family here”. Then I added “And emotionally unstable”.

Then the following answer came: “Don’t make a problem of your partner Guus just find your happiness without the partner; let yourself stand without him; make him realize that he is wrong when he left you….”.

And a little later “Your time will come; just take everything as a challenge”.

Then my reaction was that I have become a bit tired of all the challenges.

As I am trying to listen to The Universe a little more lately I realized I did not have a page “challenge” in this site. And that I don’t really know what a challenge is. Yes, I have some clue as of course I know the word challenge, but in my mind it mainly relates to competition. And I guess life’s challenges are not about competition. And I also notice that my interpretation about many words are wrong. That I have a misconception about many words, especially when meant to me by well willing people. And often responses like this turn me off, make me angry.

So then I thought I better figure out what challenge exactly means. Or what it could mean to me. And yes, write about it, as I think it fits in this site.

And I wanted to write more here, as many things related to ‘success’, the success I am looking for, also described in this site, don’t seem to work for me. As e.g. I know I can work hard, and I did. But in the end it didn’t bring me success.

But let’s continue with the word “challenge”, like what it means, or could mean to me, or you, looking for success.

Ah, see, there are two meanings to the word challenge as shown in Google:

  • a call to take part in a contest or competition, especially a duel;
  • an objection or query as to the truth of something, often with an implicit demand for proof.

And I just found another definition, which seems more applicable (and helpful to me now):

  • (the situation of being faced with) something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person’s ability.

So when I read “challenge” in relation to life’s challenges, I feel invited to partake in a contest with life. So that feels like I have to win from life. But who ever could “win” from life, I am thinking now.

When seeing the second meaning of challenge I might as well think about “life’s challenges” in that way.

And the third meaning, that I just skipped before writing on and seems the most applicable, may mean that I just need to do a lot more research on things before taking them for granted. So the next sentence that I wrote earlier meant really I did “too little” research. As none of the definitions I found I think applies to what I was looking for.

And there is more on “challenge”, so I better add the link here to challenge in the Cambridge dictionary.

Wow, so a little research on just a simple sentence that has been bothering me for a long, long time can change my whole outlook on it.

And of course when talking of “life’s challenges”, the first meaning could still be meant or apply. But then I could take the second meaning into account anyhow if I want to.