How you relate to adversity can completely change your circumstances and give you the renewed power you need to create the personal and professional life you want.
Who Are You When Times Get Rough? A carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
The Carrot
I want you to think of adversity as a pot of boiling water. In boiling water, the carrot starts out strong and hard but turns soft and weak.
The Egg
The egg protected by a thin outer shell becomes hard on the inside.
The Coffee Bean
But brown coffee beans? Brown coffee beans are unique because after they’re in boiling water…they change the water.
If you are like the coffee bean, you know you have the power to “change the water” of your circumstances – the very circumstances that challenge you or bring you pain.
It’s when things are at their worst that you have the greatest opportunity to rise to the occasion and to elevate yourself to another level.
I have three recommendations to help you meet adversity and come out the other side empowered!
- You have to develop a clear understanding that all obstacles are transitory. This is something that you know intellectually but you don’t always act like you know…
The challenging times will pass even if it doesn’t feel like they will. So any expectation you have that life should be easy or easier is going to get in your way. Do what you can to move beyond understanding to embrace the reality that this too shall pass.
2. You gotta vote on yourself.
You have to believe in yourself so deeply that it gives you the courage and the ability to weather any storm.
3. You have to give up “giving up” as an option.
Don’t even let that come into your mind. Persistence is critical. And something you may not do is get support when you need it. So begin to make it a habit to get support if you need it along the way.
Every journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you give up at the beginning or in the middle you’ll never make it to the end.
So keep going!
Summation:
Challenges, obstacles, and adversity are an inextricable part of life. You can’t avoid them but you can often choose who you will be when challenging times befall you.
Finding your footing during adverse times offers you the opportunity to remember three things:
- No matter how dire life seems at the moment, all things pass in time
- You are strong enough to get through it
- Giving up and giving in to the “low” times are not options in the journey to the life you want
