The Farmer and The Old Mule

While the story does make us smile, it does have wisdom in it. How we handle adversity determines our success in life. One of my thoughts on adversity is, "Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it." When faced with adversity we can give up and adopt the poor me attitude. Or we can look at adversity as an opportunity to find other ways to do things. We can be determined, persistent and persevere. It all comes down to your choice - and it is a choice of attitude!

Funny Words of Wisdom
The Farmer and The Old Mule
Author: Byron Pulsifer, © 2012

A story about a farmer and his old mule I recently read reminded me about defeating adversity.

You see, the farmer thought the mule was not worth saving when it fell into a well accidentally so he thought he would just put it out of its misery by burying it. Despite the farmer's best efforts to bury the mule shovel after shovel full, the mule resisted until it was able to climb out of the well on top of all the dirt that was thrown in after him.

The mule, despite the fact it was initially in a deep well, would not give up. The mule simply shook the dirt off shovel by shovel never giving up the will to live, to climb out of the well.

We may all have fallen into a hole at one time or another while we did not intend to. Some of us act like the mule and fight and fight until we get out of the hole, while others may try a few attempts but in the end just give up and stay where they have fallen.

The difference between the ones who are able to climb out and the ones who ultimately give in and stay in their hole is really a matter of one's overpowering desire to get out from under whatever is pushing you down or trapping you. For those who have this power, it is not a matter of hoping to get out of the hole but only a matter of when.

There certainly is a good comparison between a mule and it's stubbornness and a person who never, ever assumes that defeat or failure is an option. To accept defeat, in my view, is to accept that life is over - all the fight is gone and you are simply waiting for your turn to have real dirt piled onto you.

The real challenge for a lot of us is to maintain the energy required to get out of one hole after another. No one said life was going to be easy so you might s well start to develop your resiliency, and your abilities to overcome issues by always, always looking for a solution and never, ever be satisfied that any hole, no matter how big, is going to get the better of you.

Be like a mule, a mule that is stubborn, who is going to do what they are going to do without even thinking that there is any option but to succeed.

The farmer and the mule have a lot in common with most situations in life. We cannot always choose what difficulties we will run into, but we can choose how to respond. Our actions or reactions are in direct relationship to how much we actually control our own perceptions because there is absolutely no circumstance that has within its’ own powers to compel any kind of emotional reaction. Events happen; you do not give any power to an event unless you choose to do so. This is the plain fact. If you do react to an event, you have made an actual decision to do so. To say an event caused you to react is not, in reality, a true statement. The event caused absolutely nothing; you made a choice and part of that choice is both one of mental decision-making and of physical action.

The secret to any event is to work towards minimizing emotion and maximizing pure factual thinking skills. When you work to reduce emotional reactions to a situation, you are giving yourself a real chance to deal with the issue in a constructive way. This is not to say that some events in life will not lead to an emotionally charged reaction like the death of a loved one. But, this is not what we are talking about here. We are, instead, talking about all those everyday events that crop up like when a colleague does something that can mean that you have to take charge and do the work, or when you find yourself stuck in traffic with no where to go but sit in your car, These are situations that can lead to emotions but this need not happen when you realize you are in charge of how you feel, how you think, and therefore how you will react.