Never again will I say, "I can't," for "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). Never again will I admit lack, for "My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:19). Never again will I fear, for "God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Tim 1:7). Never again will I harbor doubt and lack of faith, for "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear" (Psa 27:1). Never again will I allow the supremacy of Satan over my life, for "the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). Never again will I admit defeat, for "God always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him" (2 Cor 2:14). Never again will I lack wisdom, for "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5). Never again will I be worried and frustrated, "Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1 Pet 5:7). Never again will I be in bondage, for "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17).
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
|| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
|| Franklin D. Roosevelt
The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.
|| Martin Luther King Jr.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
|| William Ellery Channing
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
|| Joshua J. Marine
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
|| Albert Einstein
Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
|| George S. Patton
All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.
|| Henry David Thoreau
Fractures well cured make us more strong.
|| Ralph Waldo Emerson
A gentleman can withstand hardships; it is only the small man who, when submitted to them, is swept off his feet.
|| Confucius
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man be perfected without trials.
|| Danish Proverb
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.
|| Henry J. Kaise
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better.
|| Proverb
It is the surmounting of difficulties that make heroes.
|| Louis Kossuth
History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.|| B. C. Forbes
Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.
|| Norman Vincent Peale
Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today. -Robert H. SchullerObstacles can't stop you. Problems can't stop you. Most of all other people can't stop you. Only you can stop you|| Jeffrey Gitomer
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
|| Michael Jordan
It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.
|| Bob Richards
Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
|| Henry Ward Beecher
Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
|| Napoleon Hill
Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.
|| Lou Holtz
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.|| Aristotle
Kites rise highest against the wind-not with it.
|| Winston Churchill
I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.
|| J. C. Penney
If you're going through hell, keep going.
|| Winston Churchill
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
|| Winston Churchill
You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round.
|| James J. Corbett
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
|| Barbara De Angelis
You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
|| Walt Disney
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
|| Epictetus
Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.|| Denis Waitley
Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.
|| Paul "Bear" Bryant
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - ssential to success.
|| Napoleon Hill
Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.|| Peter Marshall
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
|| Dale Carnegie
If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
|| Samuel Johnson
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
|| Franklin D Roosevelt
It was courage, faith, endurance and a dogged determination to surmount all obstacles that built this bridge.
|| John J. Watson
It’s a very funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
|| William Somerset Maugham
Those who wish to sing, always find a song.
|| Swedish Proverb
To him who is determined it remains only to act.
|| Italian Proverb
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
|| Dr. Robert Schuller
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination.
|| Tommy Lasorda
In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.
Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.
Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.
The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.
"We told them so."
"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."
"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."
Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.
He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.
It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.
For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.
Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.
Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.
Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.
In a rare display of grit, determination and endurance, "50,000 Mosquito Bites in the Amazon Forest" tell the fascinating true-life story of a man's journey across the Amazon forest in 859 days.
"It proves you can do anything — even if people say you cannot. I've proved that if you want something enough, you can do anything!", exclaimed Ed Stafford, after he became the first man known to have walked the entire length of the Amazon river. “It is unbelievable to be here”, Stafford said. He survived 859 days, thousands of miles and “50,000 mosquito bites”.
On Monday, August 9, in Maruda beach, northern Brazil, Stafford was the personification of joy as he hugged everyone in sight, his happiness was without bounds. Though he had earlier collapsed due to fatigue, Stafford looked like he had all the energy in the world, as if walking for 2½ years were nothing.
Stafford was humble in his achievement and said that he was "no eco-warrior" and that it was simply a grand expedition of endurance but expressed the hope that his feat would raise awareness of destruction to the Amazon rain forest. "The crux of it is, if this wasn't a selfish, boy's-own adventure, I don't think it would have worked," the 34-year-old former British army captain said as he sat under the Brazilian sun near the jungle city of Belem. "I am simply doing it because no one has done it before."
There are at least six known expeditions along the course of the Amazon river, from its source high in the Peruvian Andes across Colombia and into Brazil before its waters are dumped into the ocean 4,200 miles (6,760 kilometers) away. But those used boats to advance their travel.
The long walk of grit, endurance and determination began on April 2, 2008, on the southern coast of Peru. Stafford was initially accompanied by a friend but within three months, when the going became tough, his friend left. Alone and without any companion, Stafford carried on, walking bits of the route with hundreds of locals he met along the way. Later, a Peruvian forestry worker by the name Gadiel "Cho" Sanchez Rivera, 31, decided to make the journey with Stafford to the Atlantic.
According to Stafford his journey cost $100,000 and is paid for by sponsoring companies and donations which he managed to raise. After walking the whole distance, Stafford said that it has deepened his understanding of the Amazon, its role in protecting the globe against climate change and the complex forces that are leading to its destruction. He said he has seen vast swaths of demolished jungle.
The walk was not easy. Stafford said he has lived off piranha fish he caught, rice and beans, and store-bought munitions found in local communities along the river. At night, Stafford said he has downloaded podcasts via Internet satellite phone by British comedian Ricky Gervais and episodes of the TV show "The Office".
Stafford and Rivera have encountered every conceivable danger, from 18-foot (5.5-meter) long caimans, enormous anaconda snakes, illness, food shortages and the threat of drowning.
Along the way Stafford also encountered hostile natives. In one particular stretch of the journey after they were welcomed in one Indian community in September 2008, the leaders offered to radio ahead to the next village for permission for Stafford and Rivera to walk through their territory. The response they received was not at all favorable.
"If a gringo walks into their community they will kill him," Stafford wrote on his blog at that time. Stafford planned an alternative route around the village but he was taken captive by Indians from another village. After being dressed down and having their possessions thoroughly picked over — only a machete was confiscated — Stafford and Rivera's repeated explanations of the point of their expedition won over the Indians.
They were allowed to continue on the land, but only if they hired guides from the tribe. And with the hired guides from the tribe Stafford continued the journey and eventually made it.
Stafford is not content with the two-and-half years of walk and walk and walk. He is contemplating another expedition in September 2011.
For him a single journey is surreal. He wants to be doubly sure by repeating the feat one more time.
(Story culled from Associated Press & other sources. Photo credit: www.danheller.com, Google & other sources)
