Stephen Hopson Interview Part II of II
The following text is from Part II of my “Stephen Hopson Interview” at Adversity University:
10. Shaun, at Adversity University, I often talk about the value of changing our perceptions in order to deal with adversity. How have you dealt with adversity in your life? Give us specific examples of adversity and what you did to overcome them.
Adversity is a fancy word for difficulty or misfortune, right? If you asked me this question a few years ago, I would have said that the best way to deal with life’s difficulties is to simply not deal with them, because that’s how I used to live my life. If something was challenging, I’d look for a way out of it — and do something that I thought would be easier. If I was struggling to overcome something, then I would purposely avoid it — and leave it unresolved. If I came across something new, then I would be reluctant to try it — because I was afraid of being embarrassed if I wasn’t good at it.
The thing is, with this approach I ended up doing nothing most of the time: I did nothing to advance my career, I did nothing to increase my skills set, and I did nothing to improve my life — all because I was terrified of failure. I avoided life for a few years under the belief that “If you don’t try, you can’t fail.”
Unfortunately, applying the brakes in this manner resulted in something worse than failure: Since I put a ceiling on my potential for life, the only direction I could go was down — and down I went.
Read the rest of this interview at Adversity University
4 Responses to “Stephen Hopson Interview Part II of II”
Damn,
you ve been very honest, thanks for sharnig and being transparent. specially about the adversity question. keep going, have the best of lucks in your fiction writing.
Thanks
I agree with other comments that you handled the question on adversity in the best manner. It was neither self-pitying nor self-promoting, which is the problem I have with answering questions of that nature. Actually for the MTTC I had to write an essay on the greatest obstacle I have had to overcome, and I could not think of anything to write about. My essay was a bunch of crap, but I passed based on knowledge of essay structure. Your responses were, as always, truthful and open. Now that’s good writing! I think what I enjoy most about blogs in general is the sense of truly seeing someone else’s life and point of view.
Hey Shaun! Just to say that I found you via the interview from Stephen’s blog, and you have a new subscriber
Keep up the great work, man.
Cheers,
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net
Modern personal development, entwined with ancient spirituality.
Shaun - thank you for sharing via the interviews at Adversity University. I appreciate your candid answers and authenticity. I browsed a little on your site and you have some interesting things to say. I like it and I like your writing. You’re an inspiration. I’ll be subscribing to your feed.