When Sh*t Happens...

You know what I mean… Life is going along OK, and something happens. You get a piece of bad news. You get an injury. Something comes out of the blue and changes your life.

Stuff (aka sh*t) happens.

It can be gut-turning, heart-wrenching, and can even knock you off your feet.

The tendency is to ask “why is this happening to me?”

That question implies that something “out there” is acting upon you. Someone intentionally did something “to” you. The Universe did something “to” you. An outside force has caused you pain. That puts you in the victim role, where you can do nothing except take whatever comes to you. You have no power against whatever is happening.

A different question would be “What can I learn from what’s happening?”

If we assume that what happened is verifiable (a car accident, loss of a job, etc), then it can’t be changed. There’s no going back to fix it. What can be changed is the future, and how you deal with it.

Asking “what can I learn from this” allows you to look for the silver lining on the cloud. This is not just optimism. If you look back on any “bad” thing that happened in your past, you can find something good that happened as a result of it. You acquired a big chunk of wisdom. You were able to help someone else out of the same situation. You met someone that became a partner. Your next job was the job of your dreams.

When stuff happens to me, I try my best to think that it is happening FOR me, not TO me. It comes back to the idea of the Universe being friendly. Occasionally friends have to tell you a hard truth. Friends sometimes have to push you into doing something you don’t want to do or are afraid to do. Although I can’t see it, I expect that I will eventually see how the “stuff” that’s happening brought me something good.

What do you think of this? Have you had a “bad” thing happen that eventually led to something great? Leave a comment!

Until next time, remember… We are all magnificent…