5 Strong Life Lessons from Helen Keller – An Undefeated Character

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet” – Helen Keller

If this quote triggers you, this could be the case that you’re still trying to work on your character development. We often bow down before the relentless heckles life throws at us. Think of a situation where you might develop the idea of quitting; now, I am going to explore a few life lessons of a woman who was deaf and blind but never lost her vigor in the way of the character development. Many of us might have read the journey of Helen Keller and how she made impossible tasks a cakewalk through her determination and perseverance.

Before we jump into talking about her achievements and how she made the progress in character development, we need to know that at the age of nineteen years, she lost her ability to hear and see things. She came up with the line –

“The best and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched”

You can consider this blog as a tribute to the most undefeated character in the world – Helen Keller who survived and won every ups and downs of the life.

“Yesterday’s perplexities are strangely simple today and today’s difficulties become tomorrow’s pastime”

If we read this line twice or thrice, we could get the pathway of the life. This is an instruction which can be implied in any difficult situation in life where we think of giving up. In my opinion, we, as a human being, have the tendency to wreck our nerves as and when our brain spots any difficulties ahead. If we consider this line as the dictum of the life, most of problems will be vanished because our minds will stop playing tricks with us.

A person, who has lost her sight and hearing capability, aced arithmetic calculation flawlessly. Whenever we think of a successful people, we only consider those who can see and hear. When we talk about Helen, Anne, her teacher could not be missed. Anne set this power earlier in Helen that she could learn words fluently and its concepts. She has been with Helen throughout to help her in learning new words. She has seen the entire progress Helen has made and become a remarkable character in the history.

“It’s a terrible thing to see and have no vision”

Can you imagine yourself in not seeing things around? We often have so many complaints about our life when we are able to see beautiful things around. Helen’s life has been an example that it is our mind that sets the vision in our eyes. We set our own limitations; but in Helen’s case, fortune set the limitations for her and she went above and beyond to achieve her dreams.

“What I am looking for is not out there, it’s in me”

Let me narrate my story here which I used to do that I always needed somebody to place the blame on when the adversity arrives. I never looked deep inside me that the problem could reside there that reflected in my approach. In relationship, we blame our partners for not being happy because they have not done something or other for us. In workplace, we lay down the blames on our colleagues and management.

We forget that it could be us who can change the entire think just by making some changes in our behavior. To get the next big thing in our life, we do not need to rely on somebody else. It could be us who can make changes in our mindset and thing will fall in place. Helen absolutely did the same; she trusted her instincts and kept pursuing her dream. She earned the bachelor degree without vision.

“You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you preserve”

How many times it happens that we give up because we fail at the first attempt, many times. This feelings of giving up right after I failed used to happen frequently. Reading Helen Keller has unfurled a new way of living life.

Helen Keller in her words stated beautifully – “You will find a joy in overcoming obstacles – a delight in climbing rugged paths, which you would perhaps never know if you did not sometime slip backward”. This line could set a whole new foundation in anyone’s life who might have the big dreams but stuck with the limitations on their minds.

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood”

Life is a continuous challenge where one needs to put efforts continuously. Life without challenges is impossible. The success only gets reflected when we accept the challenge and try to find out the solutions.

There is a positive way of looking at the problems as an opportunity. Helen Keller, by unfurling her life stories, has shared the same experience with her readers so that they can take life as it comes and being able to overcome the hurdles.

I have tried to bring the bits and pieces of Keller’s life and her journey towards setting her own dreams and achieving it with all her heart. Keller has been an inspiring example to many people with disabilities not only physical but the mental ones. Even, this book can be a guiding light for those who have the tendency to give up easily on life challenges.