Have you ever noticed how often the challenges we face also contains a blessing in disguise? If not, perhaps you haven’t been looking closely enough!
As I reminisce over 2020 all I can say is “what a year!”. I sold my home of 17 years, moved into the city while grieving over my 98-year-old No Mess Granny’s death. Covid 19 hit and the world went on a pandemic shut down. As a business owner I was grieving in another way. I felt totally loss, before any SBA loan, I was stressing about how I was going to keep TFC afloat. My adenomyosis was getting worse. It was becoming unbearable, the excessive bleeding was leaving me fatigued and anemic. My bladder issues were at an all-time high. There wasn’t a week that had gone by where I didn’t hear of someone, I knew that had passed away. At the height of the Covid my home church lost 14 people in one month including our pastor. By the end of the year I lost my paternal grandmother and one of my line sisters (sorority sister I pledged with) to Covid. I had a 4-hour surgery with two surgeons to perform a hysterectomy, hernia repair, lysis of adhesions/ scar tissue, and a cystoscope. I am thanking God for all those challenges because without facing them, I wouldn’t know His grace, greatness and what a true blessing it is to be alive.
Don’t life’s challenges usually seem like inconveniences when they interrupt our schedules, or get in the way of something we want to do? Isn’t that part of the reason we call them challenges?
When we’re working toward an important goal, the last thing we want is to face is unexpected challenges or obstacles. When that happens, it usually means a major delay, added learning
curve, greater expense, or some other unplanned complication. When we are focused on results it is hard to appreciate the detours caused by new challenges. Everything changes when we learn to see life’s challenges in a whole new light. What if we could learn to see them as highly beneficial experiences, adventures in learning, or even as a blessing in disguise?
Wouldn’t that be a welcome shift in perception? I could look back on 2020 and only discuss the bad moments or challenges but I choose to look at all the blessings that came out of my challenges. I learned to appreciate my amazing Team Tadda even more. They kept TFC running smoothly all while tending to me in the hospital and taking care of me at home. I learned how to pivot my business to add virtual training and other trainings and services such as: A1c testing and IV therapy to our Wellness Center. I learned to breath differently, meditate and to wake up daily and find something or someone to be grateful for. Life is too short to waste time being mad, resentful, and always questioning why.
The truth is, with the right mental attitude we can completely reframe the way we experience challenges. And asking the right questions is one of the most effective ways to do that. With a little practice we can come to view challenges as some of our most valuable life experiences. Here are five questions to ask yourself when facing challenges:
What can I learn from this?
Too often we view a challenges as irritating annoyance, when in fact it may hold a great opportunity to learn and grow! If we start by asking ourselves, “what can I learn from this
experience?” it immediately puts a more positive spin on the situation. It allows us to discover something worth appreciating about our experience. It makes it possible to recognize true value
that might have gone unnoticed, and to see opportunity and possibility instead of inconvenience and annoyance.
How can this strengthen me?
One major reason why a challenge might intimidate us is because we don’t feel capable of handling it. We may have a limited perception of our own abilities, so we automatically believe
that the challenge is bigger than we are. If we learn to see each challenge as an opportunity to become stronger and more capable, everything changes. We can use challenging situations to
unlock our untapped strengths and abilities. Each time we do this it will increase our confidence until we begin to see most challenges as opportunities to harness our personal power to an even greater degree.
How can I use this to help others?
Even though we might believe that our goals only affect us personally, that is rarely the case. What we do, how we think and feel, and our course of action has an impact on the people around us. Not only do other people watch the things we do and how we live our life – they often model their own behavior after ours. If you refuse to let challenges intimidate you or slow you down, you just might inspire and motivate others to do the same when they face obstacles of their own. Anytime you experience personal growth, you help the people around you in some way.
Challenging circumstances are part of life, that’s not going to change. However, that doesn’t mean that you are a victim of circumstances. Your attitude and perception are something that you create. They are not dictated by your circumstances. You always have a choice! So, the real question here is this, will you choose to look for a blessing in every challenge? I will...Can I Get It? NoMess
