All of us face adversity many times in our lives. Some adversity we are forced to go through, some adversity we try to avoid using many many ingenious ways. But, we all surely face adversity. Is there any benefit from adversity? Is it useful at all? I have often read that adversity will forge your character. During my own times of adversity, believe me I have had a few tough ones and will have some for the rest of my life, I do not think about character building….but I have always asked one question: what is the meaning of life? Is this adversity supposed to help me find meaning in some way?

Towards that end, I recently came across a wonderful talk on TED…a website with some wonderful talks by an amazing set of people.  This talk is from a person named Andrew Solomon, whom I had not heard about before this talk. The talk was titled “How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are“. The main thesis in the talk was to use Adversity to Forge a Meaning and hence Build an Identity. The examples given in that talk explains the thesis so beautifully that I felt it would benefit others as well. It is amazing how some people can frame the problem and the solutions so beautifully that it is beneficial to lots of others who do not have that gift. The talk is about 21 mts and worth every minute of it.

Hope it benefits all who watch it.