Shonima Malhotra
Last day I was discussing a topic with my students related to ‘Theories of Social Change’. When I started discussing Arnold Toynbee’s Cyclical theory of social change, I came across the concept of ‘Challenge and Response’ where Toynbee has discussed that each civilization faces challenges – either environmental or from internal and external enemies and the fate of the civilization depends on the nature of its response to those challenges. While elaborating it to my students, I felt related to this concept and I realized how this concept could be applied to our lives on day to day basis.
Challenge is the situation of being confronted with something that demands physical, mental, emotional efforts in order to be faced and completed successfully. Challenges are an inevitable part of everyone’s life. Nobody’s life is devoid of challenges, whether big or small. I feel the moment a being is born it starts facing different set of challenges – physical, psychological, emotional, environmental at different stages of our lives. Every creature encounters its own set of challenges in their respective environments. The responses to challenges vary significantly between human beings and other living beings primarily due to complexity of human cognition and social structures. While other living beings demonstrate remarkable adaptations and survival strategies, human responses to challenges are often characterized by a unique combination of cognitive, social and technological factors, contributing to a wide range of diverse and dynamic solutions.
In the journey of human life, challenges vary across different milestones of life, reflecting the evolving nature of personal and societal expectations. Meeting basic needs for nutrition, sleep and care, forming secure attachments with caregivers, developing motor and sensory skills are the challenges at infancy phase of life; childhood phase comes with the challenges of navigating social relationships and peer interactions, learning and adapting to formal education, discovering personal interests and hobbies; adolescence involves developing a sense of identity and self esteem, coping with hormonal changes and emotional fluctuations, making decisions about education and future careers; middle adulthood demands balancing career and family responsibilities, coping with aging parents and potential care giving duties, reflecting on life choices and goals; and late adulthood has its own hassle of coping with health challenges and potential loss of loved ones, adjusting to retirement and changes in lifestyle, finding purpose and maintain social connections.
Not only at different milestones, but I feel we face challenges on day to day basis. To mention a few, getting up in the morning in intense cold, driving safe amidst such chronic traffic, dealing maturely with people of different nature etc.
However, challenges in themselves do not have the inbuilt capacity to influence our lives. They only provide the much needed initial push. They only act as a triggering influence. It is indeed the way we get triggered that becomes a decisive factor regarding the impact of these challenges. The challenges can make us or mar us. They can transform us into a positive and stronger human being or can act negatively upon us. It is the nature of our response to the challenges that determines the course, direction and quality of our lives. Everyone deals with adversity differently. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to overcoming them. What works for one person might not work for another. Our responses are subject to our personality, experiences and nature of challenge itself. Accordingly we adopt either positive or negative approach in coping with them.
People with a positive mindset and positive approach towards life are liable to embrace them with resilience and adaptability, and consider them as road towards their self improvement. Since they resolve to reach the goal, they leverage the necessary strengths and resources to navigate them with a sense of purpose and confidence. As a result the impact of the obstacles and troubles in their path goes down. Acknowledging that learning is a component of human life journey and it comes through challenges and solving them, these people take challenges as an opportunity to undergo new experiences and lessons those results in their limitless personal growth by unfolding their capacities, potential, hidden talents, strengths they never knew they had on one hand, and helping them know their shortcomings and weaknesses on the other hand. So, for them such hardships not only pave the way to develop new skills and perspectives but also help them to work upon and overcome their drawbacks there by developing a deeper understanding of themselves and the world.
Talking about other angle, those with a negative approach and mindset find facing challenges and difficulties too hard. Whether it is a talent or career they want to pursue, learning a new skill, or something as trivial as losing weight, these people tend to back out as they perceive it beyond their ability. Instead of thinking outside their comfort zones and encouraging the exploration of new ideas and solutions, they look at them as insuperable problems. They espouse a defeatist attitude and keep dwelling on problems without seeking solutions. Their negative responses include avoidance, procrastination and self doubt. Such individuals tend to focus on perceived limitations, engage in self sabotaging behaviours or resist change. This mindset can create a cycle of negativity, hindering adaptability to handle adversity in various aspects of life and making it difficult to overcome hurdles thereby affecting their life and health.
I feel that failing to push forward; one misses many favourable and auspicious opportunities. I quote two personal experiences to highlight how our approach towards challenge can influence our lives. Right from XIth class, I wanted to pursue a career in psychology. At that time, it was news in the paper that three departments of post graduation would be introduced within next four-five years in the University of Jammu. Department of Psychology was one of the departments. So I was dead sure that by the time I will complete my graduation, Psychology as a course will get introduced in the University of Jammu. But somehow that did not happen. Knowing my keen interest in the subject, my parents asked me to pursue post graduation in Psychology from some other University outside Jammu. Now to go out to some other place away from my parents and home was a challenge for me and I could not muster the strength to face that challenge. I could not make up my mind to go out and hence had to forgo my dream. Had I accepted this challenge and gathered the courage to go out, I could have fulfilled my dream. Not able to pursue P.G. in Psychology, I chose sociology as a subject for post graduation. I had not studied that subject at the graduation level. Moreover mine was the first batch of P.G. in the University. So again it was a new challenge before me. But I didn’t give up. No doubt I had to face hurdles but my sincere hard work and the support of my teachers, parents and classmates made the journey possible for me. It was because of my attitude that I could complete my masters in the subject and today I am appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. It is quite evident from these examples that it is primarily our way of reacting towards the situations that determines the outcome.
Through this article I want to emphatically hint at the fact that the connection to victory is more a matter of our perception than physical strength. If our heart loses in any situation then our loss is fixed. But if we are determined to win, then our triumph is fixed. Everything revolves around our perspective of looking at things. I strongly feel, instead of creating hue and cry and getting broken down by the challenges and difficulties; stress and strains of life, we should develop techniques as practicing meditation, deep breathing and mindfulness; seeking support from family, friends; seeking guidance from others who have experienced similar transitions; adopting healthy lifestyle choices including regular exercise, proper nutrition, and sufficient sleep and practicing self care to manage mental health effectively; time management skills; positive affirmations, cognitive restructuring; creative outlets such as art, writing or music; developing emotional intelligence and strength possibly through therapy or support groups to cope with them. Our motto in life should be ‘Ruk jana nahi tu kahin haar ke, kanton pe chalke milagae saaye bahar ke.’ Regardless of the outcome of any challenge or struggle, don’t be afraid to start over again- for this time, you are not starting from scratch but with experience.
(The writer is Assistant Professor of
Sociology GDC Sidhra).
