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ClickBank is one of the first affiliate merchant networks on the Internet, and still gaining popularity since it started in 1998.

It is the largest marketplace for digital products, and for this reason, it’s become the go-to for marketers who want to promote e-books, video tutorials, and other electronic services.

It wins out in many of those categories, even more than Amazon.

Of course with a focus on this market in particular, the door is wide open for scammers and schemers to take advantage of the site, using their 90-day money-back guarantee to get promotion without paying agent overhead, and there have been some more aggressive tactics taken by marketers with their promotion.

In short, it’s a great site, for both marketers and affiliates to expand their respective businesses, but for affiliates in particular, you will want to tread carefully.

This isn’t to deter you from using the service, as there are a lot of great products and partners to be found, but as with any affiliate program, you want to use your due diligence to make sure that you are providing the best service to your readers.

It’s also a very easy marketing agency to use, and you can get rolling quickly. If you run a tech site, a book blog, or anything of the sort, you can generate a lot of revenue for the best products, and enrich your user experience easily with reviews and promotions for products that aren’t so easy to promote with other affiliate marketers like Amazon.

Like any other affiliate marketplace, ClickBank aims to connect the digital content creators and affiliate marketers. It caters both to Vendors and Affiliates.

Through ClickBank, Vendors can create digital products and market them on ClickBank through affiliates.

The affiliates, on the other hand, can make money by promoting products that are of direct and immediate use to their readers, thus pushing good content, and making money in the process.

For The Vendors:

Vendors put their products or services to the marketplace in front of possible consumers and thousands of skilled affiliates that can convert it to sales.

For vendors that can’t market easily through other affiliate programs, this is an easier way to get their products in front of customers.

E-books, for instance, aren’t covered by Amazon and some other programs, but provide not only links, but their own content.

This gets some kind of review for the writer and advertising for the publisher. It also gives the marketer a chance to promote the kind of content that will be directly beneficial to their users.

You don’t have to worry about pushing bad products, because you can read the book, and know what’s in it.

You get free content topics by posting reviews, and money from the associated links. And if your blog has a limited scope that doesn’t normally cater to affiliate links, you can find content for your readers.

For Affiliates:

An affiliate marketer uses ClickBank to find all kinds of products to promote, and there is literally something for every niche. E-books and membership programs apply to everyone’s audience, and this is what ClickBank specializes in.

Find the right products for your readers and do a review of them.

As soon as an affiliate subscribes to ClickBank, he will be given a unique link, which directs customers to the product page.

Most of the time, affiliates are also provided with the marketing materials that includes the sales letters, banners, and email marketing campaign letters by the vendors.

ClickBank acts as a one-stop shop for online marketers, it confirms payments, process orders and handles customer service.

As an affiliate, even before you sign up, they include a plethora of helpful information about how and where to post affiliate links right on their site.

ClickBank is committed to helping everyone get the most out of their service, both the merchants paying for a subscription, and the affiliates promoting the products.

Unlike other competing platforms, ClickBank eliminates the dreary paperwork and impractical contracts between the admin and the marketer or otherwise.

It is one of the best networks that offers a secure payment system to its customers. But let me just warn you, ClickBank can be tedious for newbies.

In fact, not all ClickBank affiliates make it to the top. You must work your way up to the ladder, just as with any other affiliate program.

To get you started, I have summarized some guidelines that will set you on the path a successful affiliate venture with ClickBank.

1. Find a product you can get behind.

This is a crucial part in affiliate marketing. Your marketing strategy depends largely on the products that you choose to promote.

Not all of the available products are worth your time and effort, so take the time to choose a product that you plan to promote.

Do your research.

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Facebook is the biggest social network and you can find lots of potential customers for your business with it. Using Facebook Live events is a great way to connect with your audience. Most businesses do not use Facebook Live because they don’t appreciate the benefits of it or they think that it is too complicated.

By using the techniques in this guide you can get ahead of your competitors and use Facebook Live to your advantage. You will learn what you need to do and what you need to avoid here so be sure to read it all and implement what you learn.

We have worked hard to provide you with everything that you need to know to use the Facebook Live platform to boost your brand and drive more leads and sales. You will learn proven techniques to get the best results with Facebook Live. Engagement with your audience is essential and this guide will show you how to achieve that.

Other businesses have tried using Facebook Live and failed. We do not want you to make the same mistakes that they did so follow the steps in this guide and you will maximize your chances of success.

Facebook is the largest social media website in the world. At the time of writing, Facebook has 2.7 billion users and every month it receives around 25 billion visitors. Most of these visitors have Facebook accounts.. The reason for sharing this with you is because a proportion of those Facebook users would be ideal customers for your business.

It is easier to find potential customers on Facebook than with other platforms. You can target people by their age range, their income, their location, their gender, their interests and more. So in this guide we will show you how you can leverage the power of Facebook and in particular, Facebook Live to promote your brand.

What is Facebook Live?

In April 2016, Facebook launched its streaming video service called Facebook Live. With this service you can hold a live event with your target audience through your business page on Facebook.

Although Facebook Live has been around for over 4 years, few businesses take advantage of it to boost the awareness of their brand. There could be a number of different reasons for this but the bottom line is that they are missing out on a great opportunity.

Facebook users like live events. All Facebook Live events are recorded and after the event these become available on your Facebook page. So if any of your followers missed the live event they will be able to view the replay.

When a Facebook Live event has started, notifications of the event can appear in the news feed of your followers. This can also occur once the vent has finished. This is a really good feature as some people will forget that they intended to attend the live event. It is also helpful to those followers that were unable to attend for some reason.

Facebook has made a number of changes to its algorithm to give Facebook Live events a higher priority. So now there is an even greater chance of Facebook users seeing your live video streaming event.

Is Facebook Live worth it?

Yes it certainly is! Video marketing is a lot more effective than text based content. People like to watch videos online. Only YouTube has more video views than Facebook does. Video is a great way to establish and promote your brand.

But it gets even better. Adweek have data to prove that a Facebook Live event receives three times higher engagement levels than an event video that has finished (a recording or replay). Adweek also state that the engagement levels for Facebook Live videos are five times higher than they are for an image post.

So if you are looking to give your brand a boost, get more leads for your business and make more sales then Facebook Live is a great way to do it. If you have been reluctant to make videos before and show your face on camera then you need to get over this. With Facebook Live you can really put your brand on the map.

Facebook Live on any Device

It doesn’t matter if you use a desktop computer like a laptop or a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, you can create a Facebook Live event. There is a simple process to go through depending on what device you want to use.

With a laptop or desktop computer just use your Internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera etc) and login to Facebook as you would normally. At the top of your news feed you will see a box with “What’s on your mind” so click on this. Then choose the “Live Video” option.

There are Facebook apps available for both Android and iOS powered mobile devices. You can easily find these at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. Download the app on your device and install it. With an Android device you will need to tap on “What’s on your mind” and then tap on “Go Live”. With an iOS device it is slightly different. Find “What’s on your mind” at the top of your feed and then tap the icon for video recording that will also say “Live Video”.

Whatever device you use you just follow these steps now. You will need to give your live event a name and provide a description about it (this is optional but recommended). You can also upload a video thumbnail.

The next step is to choose the audience for your Facebook Live event. Click or tap on “Next” and when you are ready to go just click or tap on “Go Live”.

You need to be aware that there is a 4 hour time limit for Facebook Live videos. This is more than enough time for your event. Nobody is going to want to sit through a 4 hour Facebook Live session no matter how good it is. We will discuss this in more detail in a later chapter.

In the next chapter we will discuss the benefits of using Facebook Live for your business…

Businesses all over the world are experiencing good results with video marketing. Surveys suggest that businesses that use videos to promote their brand and their products and services experience nearly 50% higher revenues than those that do not use video.

One survey revealed that nearly 60% of their participants stated that video marketing provided them with the best return of all content marketing types. In the same survey 78% of the participants said that they preferred live video as it enabled a deeper connection with their audience.

Main Benefits of Facebook Live

Here are the main benefits for businesses to use Facebook Live as we see it. There are others too and we will discuss the benefits in more detail:

• You can reach the largest audience in the world using a website that they use all of the time – Facebook

• Facebook Live has some excellent audience engagement features including two unique ones which are live reactions and commenting real-time

• Businesses can use Facebook Live for internal meetings or external meetings with customers etc

• Video performance analytics provide excellent insight

• You can use paid Facebook ads to boost your live events to reach more potential viewers

When you use Facebook Live to connect with your audience you bring a real human touch. You are not a faceless organization that customers and potential customers do not know the people behind it. This is very important for developing trust and establishing credibility for your brand.

A Facebook Live event provides a “face to face” opportunity that text posts and image posts cannot achieve. You can have a single host or introduce other members of your business to your audience.

Questions and Answers

Another benefit of holding a Facebook Live event is that you can hold a real time question and answer session. This will boost your engagement and it is a good idea to let people know that there will be a Q & A session prior to the event going live.

People like to ask questions. It is likely that a lot of the people attending will have their questions answered by other attendees asking the questions. This is fine as not everyone feels comfortable about asking questions on a live video stream.

You can either take questions as they come up or request that people wait until the end of the event and you will answer all questions then. By waiting until the end, you will increase the chances of your followers watching the entire event.

Some businesses set up recurring Facebook Live events where they take questions as they arise.

Recurring events are good if you have a lot of content to share with your audience. It is best of the content is different each time and not a repeat of what you have presented already.

Great during a Pandemic

At the time of writing this guide, the world is in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some countries and states are in total lockdown so they cannot attend physical events. So the interest in your Facebook Live event is likely to be higher in this scenario.

Applications like Zoom have seen a significant increase in users over the past few months. So attending a live event on Facebook will not be a problem for most people. After the pandemic we estimate that the demand for online events will remain strong so the time to get started is right now.

Share Product or Service updates

A Facebook Live event is a great way for you to share the latest information about your products and services. Do you have a new product or service? Have you made enhancements to existing products or services? Are there any special discounts that you are offering right now?

In some industries things change rapidly. If this applies to your business then you can let your followers know about the changes with a Facebook Live event. Your audience will appreciate you keeping them informed and will spread the word for you.

Behind the Scenes

People want to know who is behind your business. They want to see faces and know the names of your team. If it is possible (pandemic permitting) you can shoot a live event during your opening hours and give your followers a tour of your business.

Interviews with other employees are a good tactic as well. Your audience can see that your team is totally committed to providing them with the highest quality of service. All of this will help to establish you as a brand that truly cares about its customers.

Facebook Live is well established

These days a lot of social platforms offer live event streaming. The good thing about Facebook Live is that it has been around for a few years now and has undergone a number of enhancements to make it better and fix any issues.

Facebook Live has some great features that other live platforms do not have such as their advanced notification system which will let your audience know when an event is going live. You also have the capability to promote your Facebook Live event in advance now.

At the end of the day, people like Facebook and trust it. The numbers do not lie here – no other social media network comes close to user numbers and traffic. So holding your live event on Facebook is the smart thing to do.

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INTRODUCTION

Whenever you think of mornings, what comes to your mind? Is it thoughts of stress and anxiety? Or do you enjoy mornings and take your time to get ready? If you are anything like most people, present company included, you probably do not get all that excited to think about jumping out of bed, brushing your teeth, and starting your day.

Even for the most avid night owl, mornings do not have to be stressful, painful, or something to dread. Instead, mornings can be a great way to kickstart your day and productivity.

One of the easiest ways to make your mornings more enjoyable is through a morning ritual or routine. A morning ritual gets you in the swing of things without rushing into the day or filling your mind with useless information. Instead, a morning ritual wakes you up, energizes your being, and sets the stage for the day. With a good morning ritual, you can increase your productivity, decrease stress, and improve your overall well-being. Still, it takes a little bit of work to craft the perfect morning ritual based on your lifestyle and needs.

In this eBook, The Morning Ritual, I am going to help you increase your productivity, energy, and happiness, all by building the perfect morning routine for your day. This book covers just about anything you would need to create the perfect morning routine.

We begin by looking at the benefits of a morning ritual to show precisely how it can benefit you. From there, we jump right into crafting your morning ritual. The beginning of the morning ritual creation process will be observing your current morning habits and determining what you want out of your future mornings.

After that, we will give you morning routine tips for busy, slow, and devicefree mornings. Finally, we end by discussing how nighttime routines should be used in conjunction with your morning routines and how to keep improving.

Whether you want to renovate your old morning routine or are starting from scratch, The Morning Ritual can help you create the perfect morning routine to increase your productivity, energy, and happiness. Let us get started.

HOW A MORNING RITUAL CAN BENEFIT YOU

Welcome to The Morning Ritual. Now that you have decided to start your journey to creating the perfect morning routine, let's start by looking at the benefits of using a morning ritual throughout your life. The fact that you want to make a morning ritual means that you already know it is beneficial, but you might not know exactly how it can improve your life.

All around, a morning ritual can benefit you in a number of ways. From increasing productivity to decreasing stress, countless studies have shown that having a morning ritual is great for maximizing your life. Let's take a look at exactly how a morning routine can benefit you.

Increases Productivity

The most beneficial aspect of a morning ritual is that it boosts your productivity for the rest of the day. Whenever you wake up and jump straight into your morning ritual, you maximize your time and get started the right way. Since your morning ritual adds something to your life, it helps you to be productive from the moment you wake up.

If you are willing to be productive the second you get out of bed, you will likely be more productive for the rest of the day. In other words, momentum from your morning routine will likely follow well into noon, afternoon, and night, allowing you to have a beneficial and productive day as a whole.

Boosts Energy Levels

Another benefit of morning rituals is that they boost your energy levels. Most people hate mornings because they feel sleepy and groggy. Morning rituals can help boost your energy, allowing you to tackle the day and enjoy your mornings more.

Whether you like to read in the morning, take a shower, or workout, your morning routine helps to wake you up abruptly. This cuts through morning grogginess, helping you feel more energized, alert, and capable during the morning and day.

Increases Happiness

Happiness seems like such an odd result of a morning ritual. After all, how could a morning routine really make you feel any more content or happy with your life? Although it is easy to think these thoughts, morning rituals actually improve your happiness in a number of ways.

One reason that morning rituals increase happiness is that they lower stress. People tend to find mornings incredibly stressful. Whether it is oversleeping, rushing around to get your kids ready, or not being able to find all of your needed items, mornings come with a lot of stress and anxiety.

When you use the morning ritual correctly, a lot of the stressful parts of the morning are naturally taken care of. They are completed the night before, or you wake up early enough to complete them stress-free whenever you wake up.

Another cause for morning stress is being thrown into your work life or social pressures too quickly. If you jump on social media or scroll through your emails, you might not have a chance to fully wake up, making you feel stressed practically the second you open your eyes.

However, with a morning ritual, you cut out time in your day to focus purely on yourself and not get invested in work or social pressures too early. As a result, you do not feel as stressed and instead feel more optimistic in the mornings.

Having a morning ritual increases happiness because it also improves your relationships. Whenever you eliminate stress and focus on yourself more healthfully, your relationships naturally improve, especially with those who are around you the most.

By cutting out time for yourself every morning, you are able to deal with your own issues and not project them onto your partner or family members. It can also help you to assist your children in their morning routines, creating a stronger bond with them.

Develop Healthy Habits

In many ways, we are our habits. If our habits are unhealthy and damaging, we will be unhealthy in our life. If you repeatedly hit the snooze button, you very well may have several unhealthy habits that you need to break and healthy habits you need to form.

Having morning rituals is a great way to develop healthy habits that last throughout your lifetime. Whether your new healthy habit is working out in the morning or waking up at the same time, the habits will impact your life and extend elsewhere.

Will You Actually See These Benefits?

Whenever people start telling you the benefits of different techniques or habits, you may naturally wonder if you will see the benefits for yourself.

This is a natural and wholly understandable question. Luckily, you should see the benefits of a morning routine rather quickly.

Many studies have been conducted to test how morning routines impact a person's life. Almost all of these studies show that having a good morning ritual will benefit your life for the reasons listed above and more.

Not to mention, there are plenty of anecdotal stories that supplement these studies. Some of the most successful people in the world all have a great morning routine that helps to kickstart their day. Mohammed Ali, Arianna Huffington, and Elle Russ are just a few examples of successful people who use morning rituals to improve their lives.

It is important to mention that you might not notice benefits immediately. After all, your body must adjust to waking up earlier, but it should not take long to see the benefits. As soon as you get used to waking up and not pressing the snooze button, you should start to see the benefits pretty quickly.

Recap

Morning rituals are a great way to boost your productivity, increase your energy, enhance your happiness, and develop healthy habits. Although you will need to adjust to committing to your morning routine, expect to see these benefits rather quickly.

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WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media is certainly the buzz of today, but what is it, how can it benefit you, and why do you really care? Glad you asked. First, let’s stress that if you think social media is a fad that’s going to disappear you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Social media is a phenomenon and it’s taking the internet by storm.

Those who were quick to jump on the bandwagon and take the time to understand social media marketing have already taken their businesses miles ahead of the competition. Over the next decade, we can expect social media’s role in marketing and business to grow by leaps and bounds.

SO WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? By definition (Wikipedia), social media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

SO HOW BIG is social media? It’s huge! To give you an idea of how huge here are some recent stats.

There are more than 750 million active users on social networking site Facebook.

There are more than 156 million blogs.

There are more than 490 million YouTube videos.

SOCIAL MEDIA by Characteristics

The best way to understand social media is by grouping by char-acteristic.

Openness: The majority of social media venues promote leaving comments, voting, sharing information, and removing barriers making content open to everyone. Connectedness: Social media thrives on being connected with other people, resources, sites, blogs, etc. Conversation: Traditional media is one way communication whereas social media is more of a two-way conversation.

Participation: Social media promotes everyone to contribute and provide feedback. Media and audience blur together.

Community: Social media sees communities quickly sprout up based on common interests.

5 BASIC FORMS of Social Media

If you’re wondering when we are going to get to the meat and potatoes of social media marketing, we are already on our way. To get the most out of this e-book and concepts we’ll discuss, you need to understand social media and its components. If this is all rather boring to you we encourage you to skip forward.

THERE ARE five basic forms of social media. Let’s have a look at them.

1. Social Networks

These are sites where people build personal and business web pages and then connect with their

Friends and/or family to communicate, share content and share photos. There are a many social networks although most of us think of Facebook right away.

2. Forums

Forums came before social media and were an important prede-cessor that remains important today. These are sites were online discussion are around a specific hobby, topic, or interest. Information is shared and exchanged and online communities are built.

3. Blogs

Blogs are a well known and popular form of social media. A blog is like an online journal. It can be personal or business. They can be based on a specific topic such as fashion or real estate, or they can be more like a diary discussing daily events or news. Blogs

4. Content Communities

Content communities organize and share based on a specific type of content such as videos or photos. YouTube is the biggest content community. There are others such as Flickr or del.icio.us.

5. Microblogging

Microblogging combines social networking and micro blogs, which are the equivalent of little sound bites. It’s the perfect way of sharing information for mobile devices. Twitter is an excellent example of microblogging and they are considered the leader in the microblogging arena.

Social media has grown at a phenomenal rate, faster than any other area of the internet. It wasn’t that many decades ago that the ability to create content and then distribute it to the masses was limited to those with access to television, radio, and print.

If you wanted a video, you would call a television station, which would have employed thousands of professionals who would create, compose, and bring to air your video. If you wanted print material, you would call up a newspaper or magazine that also had teams of writers and editors who would put together your copy and bring it to print.

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Affiliate Marketing isn’t a joke, it’s a 6 billion dollar industry! If you own a blog, or have been thinking about starting an affiliate marketing business.

I’m here to show you how, step by step, using CJ’s system.

Despite what some internet trolls are saying (likely other affiliates trying to deter competition), you can start making revenue through the use of affiliate links, and driving traffic to them via blog, advertising, or otherwise.

There’s nothing to be afraid of, you can start today.

An estimated 40% of Amazon sales are generated by affiliates. Sure, Amazon is considered the best affiliate program in the business, but they are not alone in their success.

With Amazon, you are restricted to certain “qualifying” purchases, and don’t build personal relationships with product owners.

In other words, on Amazon, you can only hope to build your business with Amazon.

But there’s nothing to stop you from branching out.

The best way to get into any online business is by first casting a big net to see what’s working.

Why should you shoot for more than Amazon?

If you plan on building a business from this, then you need growth.

Just like freelancing, the best way to start building leads and connections for the future is to start networking now.

Companies like CJ will help you build those relationships while Amazon is earning you a few extra bucks per month.

We’ll start with a brief overview of Affiliate Marketing.

As mentioned in the title, affiliate marketing is defined in four main parts which we're going to cover right now.

Merchant

A merchant is any entity or person who advertises their product through affiliates. The merchant is the owner of the product or service.

From your local shoe shop to the 5-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle, to cruise lines, to product start-ups.

Publisher

The publisher pushes the advertisement for the merchant’s product or service. A publisher can be a website owner who displays banner ads on their site.

The publisher is looking to monetize their site, and they agree to display ads, in this case for a percentage of commission.

The organic traffic and authority of their website allows them to display the ads to a high volume of people, and they are compensated for driving traffic to the merchant.

Customer

Customers visit the publishers site. They see the ads, which are typically related to the site or article they came to read, and their clicks and purchases drive the engine. They are the fuel.

Network

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between the publisher and merchant, alike.

The exact role and function of the Network varies, but they tend to supply the publishers with links, or ads, which are provided by the merchant, and they track customer interaction.

They work to provide a safety net for both mechants and publishers, and enforce fair practices. The charge the merchant and turn proper commission over to the publisher.

Affiliate marketing is performance based advertising. Revenue is shared with the publisher when the customer interacts with their ad. This interaction is not always a sale. There are several different possible pay structures.

The most common ones are listed below, and you should be familiar with each, as different customers will have different needs, and you will need to promote them differently.

CPA

Cost per acquisition is the most common pay structure for affiliate marketing. The most common paid acquisition is a sale. An acquisition is any agreed upon conversion.

CPM

Cost per mile is a cost per 1000 ad impressions. It is not that common in affiliate advertising because it is a high risk model for the merchant, but it is used.

CPC

Cost per click isn’t as high risk for merchants as CPM, but again it is not that common in affiliate advertising. This is the model most notably used by Google Adsense.

Commission Junction (CJ) is an affiliate network. They are one of the largest on the web, and I don’t mean like top ten.

They are frequently cited as the biggest affiliate network, even bigger than Amazon according to some reports.

The big difference between CJ and other networks is the number of advertisers that they work with. There are over 3000 advertisers, including twice as many Internet Retailer 500 companies, for a publisher to do business with.

This allows you to be more selective and only advertise products that fit well with your target audience.

In fact, when the pros and cons are listed on sites such as makeawebsitehub.com, the biggest drawback is generally “steep learning curve.” That’s exactly what this course is designed to help you with.

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Introduction

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient.”

Steve Maraboli

This book is built on the foundations of the statement above. Life is not a bed of roses, and the earlier you realize this, the better for you. Many people crash and even take their lives because they expected life to go easy on them. Unfortunately, life is such an unpredictable “spouse” that promises you forever but can file a divorce the following week. It is no news that life is volatile like the stock market but unfortunately, many people are not prepared for it.

It’s this lack of preparation that makes people unable to cope with the fiery darts life throws at them. When you are not mentally prepared for the adversities of life, you will throw in the towel too soon. This lack of resilience is one of the reasons many people are depressed in the world today. It is also the reason many people have either taken or attempted to take their lives. According to the World Health Organization, around 800,000 people around the world kill themselves every year.

This development is sad, and that is why you need to become stronger, develop the muscles of your mind, and build up a tough skin according to the recommendations of Steve Maraboli. You don’t get stronger for life by hitting the gym. Rather, the preparation is mainly, if not purely, mental and psychological. This guide was put together to enable you to build mental strength that can sustain you during the days of adversity. It is going to be a beautiful journey that can be life-changing, depending on your attitude. Let’s begin.

Chapter 1: The Trainer Called Adversity

Experience is the best teacher; adversity is the most accomplished trainer. No one really ever wants to face misfortune. We would all have preferred to go through life, enjoying the ride without bumps. However, things are not always as planned and life is not a bed of roses and chocolates, there are always thorns somewhere. In this chapter, we’ll explore how the troubles that come our way have come to make us and not break us.

Tough Times Are Not Avoidable

The truth that many people wish isn’t true but is the reality is that adversity is inevitable. There’re no magic potions or wands that can make an individual avoid troubles and misfortunes in life. Therefore, you shouldn’t be hoping that you won’t encounter unpleasant periods in your life. Rather, you should be hoping that
you won’t experience difficulties that will break you to the extent that you won’t be able to rise up.

Indeed, there are terrible situations that can shake a person and make you feel you are cursed. However, if you keep rising from the ashes like the phoenix, you can live a beautiful life. Adversity isn’t avoidable because of the following reasons.

You Have Dreams You Want to Achieve

The year 2006 must have been one of the worst years for former Arsenal and French national team football player, Thierry Henry. It was a year Thierry was teary because of the unfortunate situations he found himself in. He lost both the World Cup final and the UEFA Champions League final that year.

These two trophies are the greatest in world football and every footballer dreams of winning one or even both trophies before they retire. In fact, some great football players are mocked after their retirement when they didn’t win these trophies during their active days. So, for a man to have lost both trophies in the same year is indeed a sad situation.

Thierry Henry would go on to win the Champions League with Barcelona eventually. The point is that we face challenges and sad days because we have dreams and aspirations we want to accomplish. So, we become frustrated when we don’t achieve them. As long as a person has goals he wants to achieve, adversity is inevitable.

You Have People and Things You Care About

Another reason tough times are unavoidable is that we have loved ones and things we want to work out. We all hope to enjoy the companionship and camaraderie of our friends and families for a long time. However, this is not often the case. Sometimes, we lose them to unfortunate situations such as diseases and accidents.

Those days are sad and dark in our lives. It is often tough to move on after the loss of a person very dear to us. Sadly, these situations are part and parcel of life. So, adversity isn’t avoidable because we don’t have control over situations such as how long our loved ones

will live. We care about them and will definitely be devastated when we lose them.

We Have Emotions

One of the biggest differences between human beings and robots is the fact that we have emotions, but they don’t. Our feelings are some of the most beautiful parts of our lives. They are the reason we feel appreciated when people celebrate us on our birthdays or when we achieve something significant. Our emotions are also the reasons we feel connected to loved ones and enjoy spending time with them.

However, our feelings are also responsible for unpleasant states such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideations. It is because you can feel that you are sad when you experience heartbreak. A robot, regardless of its sophistication, doesn’t understand such things. Your feelings are also responsible for experiences such as betrayals, disappointments, and frustrations. You will always have reasons for such feelings as long as you are alive. Therefore, adversity isn’t avoidable.

Adversity Is A Trainer

In the words of Booker T. Washington,

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.”

You should not ignore such wise words. Having been a leading voice of former slaves and their descendants who weathered oppression at different times, Washington knows a thing or two about adversity. So, you should listen to what he has to say. You might not like the sound of it, but adversity is needed. It is that trainer that takes you by the hand and leads you to the destination of your success.

So, count it all joy during those days when it feels as though the universe has a grudge against you. It is a training that will take away the dross from your silver and make you a shiny star. According to Tony Robbins, “Problems are the gifts that make us dig out and figure out who we are, what we’re made for, and what we’re responsible to give back to life.”