Have you ever been in a place in your life where everything seems to be going your way?
Life was great, your health, finances, relationships and career was heading in the right direction. And then… the bottom fell out. Your world was turned upside down and inside out without a moment’s notice.
The impact felt like it would last a lifetime- It’ was like a bee sting, it hurts but the swelling last well beyond the initial sting.
When life continues to test you, and it will, what do you do?
How do you handle the many challenges, and how do we continue to wake up to face another day of pressure, disappointments or personal setbacks? How do you reclaim your life when your life seems dark and the remnants of the pain are still present?
It is at that moment, when we have to make decisions. The decision to either allow the situation to manifest until it takes you out, or control it until as you search for a viable solution. It doesn’t matter if the problem is personal or business related – in both cases you must find a satisfactory solution.
When you make the decision to take control of your actions you control your destiny.
When you make the decision to allow your environment or situation to shape your outcome – you better be prepared to accept the results.
What sets you apart from others in a similar situation is how you respond and achieve success in the midst of a storm. Jim Rohm’s philosophy is “Don’t curse the storm or the wind, just adjust your sail.” You can’t make the necessary corrections if you can’t move past the mistakes. Change your focus as to what you can do differently to get a different result. Of times the difference between success and failure is what you do after you have failed. Turning the situation around requires one to pay close attention to the lesson learned and how you can create a more favorable result.
Another powerful concept I share is the tenacity of the ant, a parable I took from the Bible.
Have you ever noticed how the ant finds itself in a situation and it immediately retreats. I don’t mean retreat in a way that you find yourself waving the white flag- as in give up. Retreat in a way that the ant will climb up, over and around any and everything to find a way out In other words the ant never gives up; they just look for another way. Another great thing about the ant is that their very instinctive; they understand that summer is a season and therefore doesn’t last forever. So the ant gathers in the summer storing up food for their winter. The stings of life are going to happen, but if we were more like the ant and fight through the storms and embrace them as lessons learned. The bottom line is to be prepared in and out of season, make the necessary adjustments along the way and the swelling from the sting will become more bearable.
By Patricia Robinson, a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
