Imagine being told you can never do something that brings you great pleasure. What if the thing you enjoy most in life - the thing you are best at - the thing people associate with you - is no longer possible.

Do you remember Sammy Davis, Jr.? One of the great entertainers. Part of the Rat Pack. Buddy to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. A great hoofer, singer and actor. At the end of his life, cancer took away his greatest gift; his voice.

How would you react?

My dad, a very young 70, is a retired executive. His life's passion? Golf. When I was 13 he took me out on a par 3 course and began a never ending mantra of "keep your left arm straight, your knees bent, your head down and watch where your ball goes."

I don't have a natural ability on the course. But my dad; he's the best. He has been playing for 60 years.

He recently had shoulder surgery and learned that the damage that had been done years before was irreversible. This week he went to a specialist who told him that he'll never play golf again. The only thing still attached is the muscle and that's wearing thin.

He'll never play golf again.

How do you respond?

I mean, in the great scheme of things, it's just golf - right?

In life we have and will again, face adversity. Some challenges will be great, life altering, and others, mere annoyances.

But what separates the "men from the boys" if you will excuse an old adage, is how we respond. If the alarm doesn't go off and we start our day on the wrong foot, do we shake it off or allow it to color our day?

Check out wiser souls than I and their position on adversity:

Aristotle
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.

Charles "Tremendous" Jones
Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up.
They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

James Buckham
Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.