The Power of Adversity
Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better
By: Al Weastherhead, Fred Feldman
Published: April 25, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1571745629
ISBN-13: 978-1571745620
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
"We face adversity every day. We spend most of our lives trying to bounce back from it", write chairman and CEO of Weatherchem and founder of the Weatherhead Foundation, Al Weatherhead, and consultant, prolific author, and creative thought leader Fred Feldman, in their inspirational and moving book The Power of Adversity: Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better. The authors describe how the serious and life changing, and even life threatening power of adversity can transform a person through the experience of dramatic personal growth.
Al Weatherhead (photo left) and Fred Feldman share Al Weatherhead's personal and spiritual journey through adversity ranging from being a troubled alcoholic, to tearfully burying his infant son, to experiencing marital breakdown, to serious disease and health challenges. Al Weatherhead has faced his own personal adversity, and learned through bitter experience both personal and professional, how strength can be drawn from even the most traumatic and heartbreaking events in one's life. Al Weatherhead turns the conventional wisdom that adversity is a curse, but is instead a gift, that presents the opportunity to learn, to grow as a person, and to change one's life for the better in many undreamed of ways.
Fred Feldman (photo left) and Al Weatherhead offer the counter-intuitive perspective of adversity as a part of life to be lived and embraced, and not to be avoided. Indeed, Al Weatherhead emphasizes that running away from challenges, no matter how painful they might be, is not the right approach to life. Avoidance only increases the pain over time, and powerful and life changing opportunity for personal growth is missed. Instead of taking the attitude that adversity consists of events being done to a person, Al Weatherhead offers another alternative interpretation. The worst blows that life can send a person's way are special gifts that provide the inner strength to master life. A person who avoids adversity misses the chance to build this internal power to overcome obstacles and arrive on the other side, both stronger and a better human being. The pain of the suffering passes, but the strength to overcome and endure remains.
For me, the power of the book is how Al Weatherhead and Fred Feldman express their profound ideas with both compassion and insight. They also combine successfully their empowering philosophy for mastering life, with practical techniques for harnessing the gift of adversity in one's own life. This fusion of Al Weatherhead's personal experience, told in a deeply moving way, with the strategies for meeting adversity and gleaning its lessons is valuable for any reader. The core value of the book, that life can best be mastered through the challenges of adversity, instill inner strength and resolve, along with the creativity to find meaningful and lasting solutions. Instead of thinking "why me", the book challenges the reader to think in terms of "why not me". Instead of avoidance, the gift of adversity enriches a person's life.
I highly recommend the deeply profound and empowering book The Power of Adversity: Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better by Al Weatherhead and Fred Feldman, to anyone who feels troubled and unable to cope with the adversity in their life. This wonderful book will change a person's perspective on obstacles from one of fear to one of acceptance of their hidden gifts.
Read the inner strength building book The Power of Adversity: Tough Times Can Make You Stronger, Wiser, and Better by Al Weatherhead and Fred Feldman, and discover that when the moment feels the most dark, and when the troubles feel their most insurmountable, the most critical insights into life are found. This insightful book will transform your life in ways you never imagined possible.
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