How Do YOU Handle Adversity?

How do you handle adversity? In a recent reading, the author made a claim that reaching one’s potential is linked to the way you handle adversity. Interesting.

“Adversity isn’t always bad. Actually, adversity can be something to be thankful for as (God) may be using it to strengthen you.” Winston Churchill said, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

“If you allow difficulties and challenges to frustrate, intimidate or discourage you, you will never overcome them. But if you face them head-on and press through the adversities you encounter, refusing to give up in the midst of them and moving forward with a heart of gratitude (there’s that word gratitude again), you will develop the skills and determination needed to be everything you were created to be and experience everything God intends for you.

How often are the things you think are difficult or a challenge directly related to your mindset? If things don’t go your way do you feel intimidated? Do you need to always be in control and don’t handle disagreements or different points of view well? What are your reactions when things just aren’t going your way?

I do think our reactions to adversity have a lot to do with our experiences growing up. I also think our reactions have a lot to do with how old we are which means how much experience we’ve had on life’s journey. What if we took the attitude that all adversity, when mastered, becomes an opportunity as quoted by Churchill? How different would your life look? Instead of adversities being a negative, what if your mindset was one of opportunity?

When the disappointment of not making a specific sport team, or not making the high school choir, or not making the debate team, or not getting on the Dean’s List, not getting the job, the raise the promotion you thought you deserved or not…. whatever it might be, what if we looked for the lesson? What if we looked for what is next? What if we learned something so the next time we were more prepared? What if we came away understanding more what we needed to do to reach that goal? What if we were open to a new path other than the one we had planned? Hmmm…

Gratitude and mindset have so much to do with what we want to accomplish in our lives. For me, life is a constant testing of our personal resolve, our personal dreams, and goals, and our personal desire to be the best we can be. We will always be tested over and over and over again. How do you handle those challenges, those adversities? Do you learn and grow? Or do you blame, complain, and defend your actions never taking responsibility?

Success in life comes from taking responsibility, learning, growing, and a never give up mindset. Success in life comes from remembering the quote from Winston Churchill, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

Book Suggestion: The Power of Being Thankful by Joyce Meyer

Quote: Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
—Booker T. Washington

Thanksgiving Blessings

What is in your control TODAY, TOMORROW, and in the future to make a difference? That was my question to you last week.  What did you decide to take action on NOW?

As a reminder…Let’s NOT be guilty of doing kind things only over the holidays, or only for a short time. Let’s commit to KINDNESS without judgment and blame each and EVERY day. Let’s commit to this daily life mindset.  THEN we can truly make a change for generations to come.

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to respond to my blog last week, in particular. My life goal is for you to stop and think about YOUR life. I don’t pretend to have all the answers as I am finding my own truth along life’s journey as well. I hope to bring ideas to the forefront and let YOU decide what works and what doesn’t work for YOU. I hope for you to become consciously conscious of each decision whether it’s business or personal, each interaction, each relationship, each friendship, and each action that you take. I hope that in this journey you also learn to apologize for a fit of anger, you take responsibility for things you did that hurt someone else, that you leave behind blame and judgement, and that you learn to forgive yourself. My hope is also for those of you in your 20’s and 30’s to step up and commit to continuously learning and growing and for those of us in our 60’s and 70’s to not be stagnant and think we can’t continue to learn and grow and yes, even CHANGE.

As the holiday season winds up with Thanksgiving only two days away, let’s remember WHY we have this holiday in the first place. Originally, it was a day set aside to remember and give thanks to God for what He had done in protecting the first men and women who came to America, fleeing religious persecution in Europe. It was a type of harvest celebration like the one that the Jews celebrated; a day to give thanks for the crops they were able to harvest. In my opinion, this may be one day on the calendar; however, our gratitude needs to be on a daily basis.

Let’s step out of our usual routine and maybe even our comfort zone a little this year. The reality is there are many hungry children, many families needing help with food on a daily basis let alone a feast for Thanksgiving. Feeling guilty for what we do have isn’t a resourceful feeling nor does it do anything to make a difference. My challenge is to do something that WILL make a difference.

 

It’s the little things…As you go to the grocery store to get what you need for YOUR Thanksgiving dinner, why not add a Bag Hunger grocery bag for a family to also have something on their table. Contribute to your local food bank with time or money, serve at a church supper for the homeless, maybe it’s including a student who’s not able to get home for this holiday, a single person, an elderly neighbor, or a young family without relatives close by to join you and your family for dinner. Look around you. What ACTIONS can you take to make a difference in someone else’s life?

In the book, Power of Being Thankful, by Joyce Meyer, the entry for November 26^th is titled, “Changing the World Around You.” Very appropriate for these times, right?! “One of the best ways to get your mind off a problem or a troubling situation is to go help someone else. When you display love to others, it not only blesses you, but it changes the world around you. Those are two great reasons to start living in love.” Sometimes love is just being friendly and compassionate.

“We’ve tried selfishness, discouragement, blame, judgement, self-pity etc.. Those are all non-resourceful and definitely DO NOT work! We’ve seen the horrific catastrophe of the Russian plane being bombed, the Paris attacks, and even the daily shootings in our own cities. The world has seen the results of these situations.

There is a better way to live our lives than focusing on problems. Choose TODAY to be an agent of change in your part of this world.

I wish you a special day of gratitude and blessings this Thanksgiving season! I also wish my husband, Happy 39^th Anniversary, as it happens to be on Thanksgiving this year. YOU are MY blessing and someone I am eternally grateful for having in my life.