Well I'm on a quest to strengthen and build up my mental toughness as I have a few "tough" obstacles ahead that will test both my mental and physical capacities.

With that said all walks of life and occupations have their hardships and challenges. Not all are strong enough to meet the adversity and bull thru it head first.

Here is a quote/story I found on the net that puts things in perspective. If you have any of your own feel free to throw them up

RB

The cook

A young woman was complaining to her father about how difficult her life had become. He said nothing, but took her to the kitchen and set three pans of water to boiling. To the first pan, he added carrots; to the second, eggs; and to the third, ground coffee. After all three had cooked, he put their contents into separate bowls and asked his daughter to cut into the eggs and carrots and smell the coffee. "What does this all mean?" she asked impatiently."Each food," he said, "teaches us something about facing adversity, as represented by the boiling water." The carrot went in hard but came out soft and weak. The eggs went in fragile but came out hardened. The coffee, however, changed the water to something better."Which will you be like as you face life?" he asked. Will you give up, become hard -- or transform adversity into triumph? As the "chef" of your own life, what will you bring to the table?

 

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Teddy Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, April 23, 1910