As a little four- and five-year-old kid, I used to run around a lot and fall down often, so my knees were generally bruised, bloody, or covered in scabs or old scars. You can still see in some old pictures of me the two bandaids covering my knees where I had hurt myself. And yet, I never thought of slowing down. I wouldn't learn from the pain, and the next time I had a chance to stretch my legs outside, I would do so without hesitation. So I would fall down over and over again, tearing apart the skin on my knees and the palms of my hands, and I would get back up. Yes, I would sometimes cry from the stinging pain, but it would all be forgotten the very next day (or in more painful situations, the very next week).

As kids, we quickly get used to the fact that there are unpleasant surprises and unexpected bumps in the road. We learn that falling flat on our faces does not have to be the end of the world, and we learn to pick ourselves up and move on with life. In fact, that is how we learn how to walk. We stumble forward a few steps and then we fall, but we never stay down. We jump right back up and continue on with determination.

In my opinion, however, it is with greater difficulty that we learn to pick ourselves up as adults after experiencing emotional pain or going through any other trying experience. All of a sudden, it is harder to get back on our feet, and we very often prefer to stay down there on the ground, feeling sorry for ourselves. We forget that it is in our power to pull ourselves together and move on, learning from the experience rather than allowing it to bring -- and keep -- us down.

But just as we learned to overcome the little bumps and bruises (and blood) when we were children, we must learn now to overcome everything else as well. We must learn to get up, no matter how hard it feels, brush ourselves off, and continue walking.

Don't let anyone or anything bring you down and keep you lying there in the mud, because it is not a pleasant thing.