Do you know how to thrive under tough circumstances?
Most of us are not educated about how to actually thrive, not just survive, when things get really tough.
Today, I got a pop quiz on thriving in life. My day started with a car accident, then it involved financial miscommunication issues, health struggles, time pressures before a big trip and more. The point is that I had a really great day anyway!!!!
REALLY!
I’ve learned that I create my experience of life – not my circumstances. So when life is tough, I do some things that really work to keep me out of the dumps and appreciating life. I do the following and you can too.
- Remind myself that even though I’ve been culturally trained to see these kinds of life challenges as big – they are FAR from big! I’ll save the big reactions for the big challenges like death and major destruction. You can too.
- I live in sufficiency and count my blessings. Given the above challenges I can be grateful that I have the finances, time, support, physical and emotional health to handle them well. And I can impress myself with how gracefully and powerfully I handle them. You can too.
- If the person or circumstance does get to me, I choose to appreciate it as a great growth opportunity. I appreciate anything and anyone that triggers a response in me that is less than my best. Facing these things is a wonderful way to work through them so that they eventually don’t have an impact anymore. You can too.