Increase Your Abe-ility
Former President Spent Life Persevering
-- By Mike Kramer, Staff Writer
Abraham Lincoln. The name stirs up images of a nation torn apart and a presidency ended with a single, violent, vicious act. To many, the man also stands for an uncanny ability to overcome setbacks and succeed despite a long history of failure.
You might have heard the stories. Through a history of personal, business and political failures, a stormy marriage, and an unpopular presidency, he persevered. Click here to see a list of obstacles that perhaps no other president had to face. How could a man who went through all this adversity continue on? How could he consistently bounce back time after time? It would have been easy for Mr. Lincoln to fold up his tent and escape to an unremarkable, practical future.
Lincoln’s knack for wrestling genius from dispiriting failure is a familiar story to many of us. But what can we learn from how he overcame those obstacles? It was much more than persistence, after all. He possessed other characteristics, used other strategies that carried him through. Whether you have weight loss goals or other goals, you can learn from his approach to life.
Get Comfortable With Failure
A lifelong learner, Lincoln never passed up a chance to learn and grow. With just one year of formal education, he threw himself into reading and studying grammar, becoming an avid self-taught student. When he lost elections or businesses failed, he corrected what he could, learned how to do it better next time, and moved on. Do you view setbacks as learning opportunities or as the end of the road?
