Frida Kahlo in 2021

 

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón famously known as Frida Kahlo was six years old when she contracted polio. Guillermo Kahlo, her father was diagnosed with epilepsy, after which he migrated to Mexico, where Frida was born. Matilde Calderón y González her mother had depression, and she was cruel and religiously fanatic. The mother and daughter had a bitter relationship, and the household atmosphere was awful. Twisting the knife, her fate presented her with a bus accident, resulting in 15 bone fractures at different places including her backbone, while she was only eighteen.

2020 brought the biggest challenge for everyone alive today. Family members parted ways, friendships ended, and millions of loved ones became memories on the walls. Nevertheless, societies transformed, as humanity fought with an invisible enemy. As members of the global community, we learned many lessons, and trading off your freedom for the greater good is perhaps the most important one. However, the foundation is laid, and we must capitalize on it knowing that every hardship we go through prepares us for the next level.

After three months of the fateful accident, Kahlo started to paint leaving her previous ambitions behind. Isolation and recovery period on her bed ignited the fire to begin all over again, as she stated later in her life. By 1931, in just six years post-accident she had entered the Palace of the Legion of Honor as a Woman Artist. Seven years later, she received a commission from the state of Mexico for her work. Subsequently, her work was admired by various famed artists across the globe, calling it “a ribbon around a bomb.” By the time she died in 1954, she had become one of the most influential artists in the 20th century.

Frida’s struggle explains the importance of hindrances and challenges on your way to success. Fortunately, we all recognize our biggest fears now, and we must ensure that every future challenge is nothing but learning. 2021 should be the year of building our internal substructure translating into more successful lives. Remember! Unless losses have ripped you apart, unless you get back up on the battlefield, stitching back your wounds one at a time, and unless you laugh in the face of your fiascos, winning will never become your habit. Like Kahlo, paint your life with colors this year. Happy New Year.