Turning disaster into opportunity

This particular post is rather apt for me after the couple of weeks I have just had.  In fact, it has been a couple of weeks of one thing after another going wrong. You know how it feels: you deal with one problem, think everything is back to normal and then something else happens.  Nooooooo…..!

Three or four years ago I would have probably gone into major meltdown, felt very sorry for myself and not been able to see the possibilities of the situation – no matter what anyone said.

Now things are different. I’m not saying I don’t have a momentary – argggghhh!  I still have an initial emotional reaction.  The difference is, I don’t let that one initial emotional reaction dictate how I then continue to respond to the situation.

I now know it is within my power to turn disaster into opportunity.  It’s within your power too.

Road rage?

Just imagine you are driving along and someone cuts dangerously in front of you. Your initial reaction? Surprise, fear, anger. That would be completely normal wouldn’t it? But how you continue to feel is totally up to you.

You can decide to let those emotions go and carry on happily with your day as you were before. Or you can choose to let an unknown, faceless person ruin your entire day with those emotions that you choose to let keep running you.

I know what I do now… I just brush it off, smile pleasantly (whilst muttering a swear word or two) and then forget about it.  No way am I going to let someone like that ruin my day.

A real disaster?

So that’s not so hard is it? The trick is to manage it with a real disaster. After my life kind of fell apart a few years ago, I was in so much emotional pain I decided to get some help. Some coaching help to be exact. And I was so fortunate to meet the most wonderful coach. And we had a lot of work to do – I was kind of a mess.

Long story short: she helped me turn my life around; gave me some invaluable tools that I still use today and one of those tools is to be able to say: “It is what it is”. Just this simple sentence would (and still does) stop me short and make me think what it’s really all about and if it’s really that bad?

Ok and even if it is pretty bad, then I can choose how I react to it. I can live my life with deliberation. So that’s what I endeavour to do – I don’t always manage it and do occasionally still have mini meltdowns, but they are far shorter-lived than they used to be and I don’t let it spiral anymore.

Opening the door to opportunity

So when disaster came knocking last week – I had a momentary arrgghhh – and then I thought about it and saw all the opportunities this disaster actually represented.  I chose to open the door to opportunity and you can too – if things are ever going wrong (big or small). And you know, I can’t wait now – this ‘disaster’ could be the best thing that’s happened in the last 12 months. Bring it on!

(Oh and the person that helped my turn my life around and live with deliberation of action, not letting my circumstances and emotions run me? A wonderful lady: Lorraine Cohen of Powerfull Living. Thanks Lorraine – you changed my life!)

Tags: coaching, emotions, opportunity, personal development, success

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 2:31 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.