The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune. – Plutarch
Misfortune happens. Do you scream and kick the cucumber down the street, or do you take a deep breath, bend down and pick them up?
What does that mean?
I would imagine most of us could put up with good fortune without too much trouble. Really good fortune might test us (look at the history of lottery winners to get an idea of what could go wrong). However, a person’s true colors are never more evident than when they are under adverse conditions.
Misfortune in life comes in different intensities and can impact different aspects of our life. If financial misfortune happened, would you do without, run away or rob a bank. Which of those you did would tell the world what the measure of you actually is. “The measure of a man” is an old way of saying what kind of character you have.
Why is character important?
Character is defined at thefreedictionary.com as “moral and ethical strength” and “a description a person’s attributes, traits or abilities.” Why would character be important? For those who don’t believe that morals or ethics are important, we’re done. For those who believe these qualities are important, you already know why character is important.
To review, your character is a representation of who you are, how you behave, and what you believe. However, character is more than just having a good reputation. It’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons, even when no one is watching, or no one cares.
Where can I apply this in my life?
Misfortune visits all of us. We can work to make it a less frequent visitor, and we can try to keep it’s stay as short as possible, but it will stop by. The only question that remains is how we will respond when it comes to visit us.
Will you sit and cry, belly ache, and complain? Will you set your jaw and redouble your efforts to work your way through it, bearing what must be bourne and doing so with a smile? Most of us will fall somewhere in-between. This struggle to deal with misfortune is what the quote is about.
A recent example is the death of Steve Jobs. I don’t recall hearing any reports of him whining about how unfair life was when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I didn’t hear about him complaining that he hadn’t had enough time. Instead, what I heard was him urging us not to waste time, to do the things that were important while we could. How would you rate his character, what would you say was the measure of that man?
Another example is the slow decline of Muhammad Ali, who is suffering from Parkinson’s syndrome, a terminal neurological condition. While his disease has made it very hard for him to be in public, he doesn’t complain about his lot in life. He has spent his years helping others and giving of himself. How would you rate his character, what would you say was the measure of that man?
While most of us will never face such a misfortune, it is nice to see what is possible when the best of us are tested to the limit. For those of us (myself included) who aren’t that good at standing up under adversity, it might be helpful to practice with the smaller misfortunes and annoyances that life provides in abundance.
By that, I mean that we can use the little irritations of life to build your misfortune muscle. When the waiter messes up your order, don’t get angry and yell, scream and have a tantrum. Instead, you can practice by remaining calm and polite while informing them of the error, and that it be rectified.
At work, if you don’t get the promotion you were hoping for, don’t go on a bender, bitching and moaning to everyone within earshot. Instead, you can practice by finding out why you were passed over, and what you can improve so that next time you are the obvious choice.
There are just so many little irritations in life one can use for practice, aren’t there? Traffic can be a great place to practice, as can waiting in lines in stores. To me, the important thing is to realize that all of life is your practice field, and to practice at every opportunity. Don’t count the failures; instead, learn from them.
What you do regularly will become a habit, and that habit will eventually become part of your character. It’s never to late to change your actions, your habits or your character. But it will take practice. I believe it is worth the effort, do you?
From: Twitter, @QuoteHouse
confirmed at : http://www.1-famous-quotes.com/quote/163385
Photo by Lars Plougmann
