You have setbacks in your life, and adversity. You can be

In the simple yet powerful words of Austin Seferian-Jenkins, a man who has walked through both triumph and trial, we hear an eternal truth echoed through the corridors of time: “You have setbacks in your life, and adversity. You can be discouraged about it or have courage to get through it and be better.” Though born of the modern world, these words carry the wisdom of the ancients. For every soul that has ever drawn breath has faced this same choice—to bow before hardship or to rise through it, to let pain harden the heart or refine it into strength.

From the dawn of humankind, life has been a cycle of adversity and awakening. The storms come not as punishment, but as teachers. The river carves the stone not to destroy it, but to shape it. So too are we shaped by our setbacks. They strip us of illusion, test our will, and reveal the depth of our spirit. Seferian-Jenkins speaks not as a philosopher from ivory towers, but as one who has fallen, struggled, and risen again. His words remind us that courage is not born in comfort—it is forged in the furnace of trial.

The ancients told of Heracles, the mightiest of heroes, who was tasked with labors beyond endurance. He faced monsters and darkness not once, but twelve times over. Each setback might have broken him, yet he pressed onward, not because he was unafraid, but because he refused to be defeated by fear. His greatness was not in his strength alone, but in his courage—the unyielding resolve to rise after each fall. In this, the story of Heracles is the story of us all. We too are called, again and again, to lift the burden of our trials and carry them forward until we emerge stronger than before.

Seferian-Jenkins himself, a warrior of the sporting world, has known the harshness of adversity—injuries, setbacks, and the public’s judgment. Yet through struggle, he learned what few ever do: that defeat is not the end, but the beginning of understanding. To be discouraged is human, but to remain there is a choice. Those who endure find that pain refines the heart as fire refines gold. When one chooses courage, the soul transforms its wounds into wisdom and its struggles into strength.

To have courage is not to deny the presence of suffering; it is to face it with faith. The one who endures does not curse the storm but learns to walk within it. For in every hardship lies the seed of greatness—if only we have the will to see it through. The wise among the ancients taught that the oak stands firm not because the wind spares it, but because it roots itself deeper with every gust. So too must we root ourselves in purpose, in hope, in the quiet conviction that we were made to overcome.

Every life will know setbacks, every heart will know sorrow. But remember this: adversity is not your enemy; it is your sculptor. It chisels away all that is false and leaves behind the truest form of your spirit. Each time you rise from discouragement, you awaken something eternal within you—the same fire that burned in heroes, prophets, and poets. The world does not ask that you be perfect, only that you be steadfast.

Let this be your lesson, then: when adversity strikes, do not ask, “Why me?” but rather, “What is this shaping me to become?” Stand firm in the winds of fate. Choose courage over despair, faith over fear, and growth over retreat. You will not always move swiftly, but if you move steadily, you will rise.

And when the years have passed and your trials lie behind you like mountains conquered, you will understand the truth of Seferian-Jenkins’ words: that life’s greatest gift is not an easy road, but the strength gained from walking the hard one. For in the end, the soul’s nobility is not measured by the absence of pain, but by the courage to rise from it—and to emerge, at last, better.