The discussion centres around opportunities, challenges and getting over things that stand in your way. On that note, we present the quote from Bruce Lee “To hell with circumstances, I create Opportunities”. Join our discussion with your comments, we look forward to listening to what you think.
Bruce lee needs no introduction! An actor, director and philosopher, he was the reason for the claim to fame of martial arts. I have thoroughly enjoyed his movies and for today, we touch upon his philosophical side – To hell with circumstances.
To Hell with circumstances – Bruce Lee
We all have a desire, dream to achieve. I am sure you can remember a time when you gave everything you had and the results did not work your way. I know I can!
- However, a result is nothing but an outcome – circumstance. A circumstance is a message trying to convey something.
- Often we are trained to doubt our capabilities when a failure is near the horizon. The mind plays tricks and makes you believe that you have faults which are an impediment to the achieve.
- Look at all the worthy achievements made by the many people in this world. Granted they had a silver spoon, but they also had worthy challenges which they overcame.
The real question is – what do ask when things do not go your way?
What are your questions and answers the mind meanders through?
Most importantly, what do you do about it?
I create Opportunities – Bruce Lee
What do you do when failure comes hitting hard? Do you run or face it head on?
- We can’t advice the best move for you. Only you can decide what you want to do with your circumstances. You can decide to feel bad and be depressed. Or you can feel bad and decide to stop!
- Look at it afresh and identify the opportunities you have. The challenges are nothing but opportunities. They talk to a creative side – A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve – Ayn Rand
- The mind tells you lies. It will make you think that you have no way out. A truth is only partial till you explore its possibilities. If you want the possibility of it working for you, there is a chance waiting for you somewhere.
- Be curious about the problem, just like the child who picks himself up and gets excited again. It is never easy, but what other option do you have?
Most philosophers have told that failure is a mere opportunity to achieve better. We don’t know about that, but what we know is – the outcome is not what you like.
If that’s the case, what are you going to do about it?
Key Points
- The failure or outcome is just a situation, a circumstance. The most important thing is what you do about it?
- Circumstances/challenges or opportunities are words and possibilities. What meaning do you want to create for your situation?
- How is your fighting spirit? Are you willing to give everything you got for your passion?
On that note, we are very eager to hear your thoughts and ideas on this quote. Excited to discuss more with you.
To hell with circumstances, I create Opportunities
Bruce Lee
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We often measure success and failure by outcome. It is accepted that if outcome is good, process must be right. But may not always be true. Despite very hardworking, sometime one does not see success. Though as an objective observer will look at outcome, because looking at effort brings in subjectivity, participant should look at effort and how they are improving with time. Eventually, success will be theirs. Statistically speaking, if we create ten opportunities, it is likely one may hit home.
Fair point Abhijit, as always a pleasure to hear from you.
1) It is very interesting you mention about the perspective of an outcome. You are right, from an objective front, it is only the result which says something is right or wrong. There are underlying areas in them which makes it a success in other fronts or in allied results. As a simple example, I was trying to get into a job with company A which did not materialise. Objectively, it was a failure. But my end result was to get a job that I like rather than being specific only about a company. Maybe the goal changed with time and I realised that it was not the only way to get to the end result. In my case, job was just a means to go out and do what I liked and try my hands at a profession. I suppose the end result is to start deciphering what we want out of our efforts and tie it less to one specific outcome, but to the possibilities and how we can constantly look at them to serve our needs
2) How we look at an outcome : It is very nice to see this point Abhijit. I think failure and success have become way too easy to define. They all have an internal meaning to us rather than what’s associated by the society. If someone doesn’t score enough marks, it is just an outcome rather than a success or failure. If we spend enough time with what our real success or failures are and go into details of them – we are able to create more opportunities. Again going with the same example of marks, I am sure the final outcome is not about getting more marks or staying ahead of the competition alone. It ties to areas of knowledge, identifying what a student can be passionate about and then we can start creating more opportunities around them.
After all, failure and success are two simple words. Our goal is to constantly create opportunities for us to win and gain the type of control we would like on our efforts. But, I do like the sound of “To hell with opportunities”. It has got a nice sting to it :D