We all run into obstacles in our lives, but we don’t all react the same. Some people will find a creative way to maneuver past the challenge, and others will sit down and let the obstacle get in their way. Students might run into small obstacles to their success when they get a bad grade on a research paper or they might be dealt a huge obstacle, like their parent’s unemployment or a death in the family.

For many kids, their home life and school life is their world. It can be difficult for these kids to put the future in perspective when they see with a limited lens, and therefore, hard for them to see life will move on if they can get past a bump in the road.

A good way to help students develop a far-seeing lens is to use an inspirational figure as an example so they can visualize the journey of perseverance.

Liz Murray is an inspirational speaker who graduated from Harvard, but not before enduring a tough life and overcoming many obstacles. She was born to two drug-addicted parents, both who eventually contracted HIV, and was homeless at 15 years old in New York City. Despite living on the streets, she was able to graduate from high school and earn a full ride scholarship to Harvard University.

Watch this video of Liz Murray talking about her memoir, Breaking Night.

Have you ever overcome an obstacle you never thought possible?

Many of us know we should save yet many of us don’t.

We tell younger generations to save so they can afford the expensive things later in life, like investing in real estate, retiring at a decent age, and raising a family. We want them to be able to afford the education they crave, the future they dream of, and just be happy.

Saving can feel like a selfish thing. When you put limitations on your spending, you most likely do it to personally reap some benefit in the future. It can also feel like the reward may never come to fruition. Forty percent of Americans whose household makes $35,000 or less believe they have a better chance of getting $500,000 by winning the lottery or sweepstakes than by saving and investing small sums of their pay. But that’s not the case for all savers.

Oseola McCarty spent 87 years of her life as a washerwoman in Mississippi. McCarty dropped out of school in sixth grade to start working. She was never married, didn’t have any children, and never learned to drive. She felt blessed to have a job, as many black people in Mississippi at the time weren’t as fortunate, and lived a frugal life with a stringent savings plan.

After living a long life denying many luxuries in life, she was able to save $150,000. But at her age, she thought it was too much money for one woman to have. That’s why she decided to donate her money to the University of Mississippi to help finance scholarships for black students.

“I wanted to share my wealth with the children,” said Miss McCarty, whose regretted never returning to school. “I never minded work, but I was always so busy, busy. Maybe I can make it so the children don’t have to work like I did.”

How can sharing the story of Oseola McCarty help youth understand how saving early can pay off big in the end? How does McCarty’s story change how you feel about saving? How about generosity?

Share in the comment box below.

Source:

Bragg, Rick. “All She Has – $150,ooo – Is Going to a University.” August 13, 1995. New York Times.  Accessed August 11, 2011. <http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5872>

“Oseola McCarty : A symbol of selfless giving.” NathanielTurner.com. Accessed on August 11, 2011. <http://www.nathanielturner.com/oseolamccarty.htm>

“Saving Stats.” Accessed on August 11, 2011. <http://www.projectcash.unh.edu/savingStats.htm>

“… In attempting this psychological presentation and a psychopathological explanation of the typical characteristics of a concentration camp inmate, I may give the impression that the human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings. (In this case the surroundings being the unique structure of camp life, which forced the prisoner to conform his conduct to a certain set pattern.) But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings? Is that theory true which would have us believe that man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental factors — be they of a biological, psychological or sociological nature? Is man but an accidental product of these? Most important, do the prisoners’ reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man cannot escape the influences of his surroundings? Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances?”

Excerpt from Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

This week we’ve talked about happiness, how you can obtain it, how it can get away from you, how you can feel stuck, and how to weigh your options so you can reroute your life and find happiness again.

I thought we’d end this week with a few words from Victor Frankl who was a psychologist, holocaust survivor and the author of one of the most well-known holocaust books, Man’s Search for Meaning. In his book and the video below, Frankl discusses the Logotherapy/Existential Analysis he developed. In LTEA “the search for a meaning in life is identified as the primary motivational force in human beings.”

Watch the rare footage of Victor Frankl from 1972 speaking to the Toronto Youth Corps on Why to Believe in Others.