"Iron is full of impurities that weaken it;

through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor-sharp sword.

Human beings develop in the same fashion."

~ Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of the Martial Art of Aikido

from The Art of Peace

This wisdom echoes Mevlana Rumi, the amazing 13th century Sufi poet and mystic:

“This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.”

“Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.”

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?”

We need to COMPLETELY redefine what it means to live at our edge. We’re only going to grow and become to the extent we can tolerate the heat of our own evolution.

Let’s.

…

Ueshiba also teaches us that “Failure is a key to success; Each mistake teaches us something.”

Are you failing often enough?