What do challenges mean?

I wonder if this is true. I was watching someone on TV the other day and he was talking about a decision he had made in his life. He mentioned that when he told his friends they all tried to talk him out of it as if he were crazy. He said at every turn he met challenges from his friends and elsewhere as well. He said it meant that he was supposed to be doing that thing or he wouldn't have met so many challenges along the way. He said that God meant for him to do that thing and the challenges made that fact more clear, and that where he had received no challenges in his life he had come to know that was when he had made a wrong decision and taken the lazy/easy road for some reason or another. I want to know if this is true or is this some sort of hippy religious mumbo jumbo that people say to make themselves feel better about all the bad things which come along in their life. Chime in and let me know what you think.

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Challenges, Religion , Spirituality