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Singer-songwriter Frank Ocean said, “we met for a reason, either you’re a blessing or a lesson.”
Think about the people you have met over your lifetime, the relationships, the friendship, the “frenemies,” and outright enemies. Each and every one of them adds something, however small, that impacts how you address life.
Every single person you come into contact with in life has significance: a reason and meaning to your existence. It may be to show you patience, how to behave, or NOT to behave, usher you to your breaking point, or build you up taller, prouder, and stronger than you have ever been before.
Life happens. How you react to it is completely up to you. You can use the experience to either empower or remove power from yourself. It’s your choice.
We all go through storms in life. It’s how we work through that pain that matters. Are we grateful for the human blessings we have in life? Do we show the people we love how much they mean to us? Do we accept help, when it’s offered, in times of trouble? Or, do we beat ourselves up, say “nothing will get better” and continue fight alone? I am infinitely grateful for the good people in my life who have helped me through some of my biggest challenges. Who deserves your gratitude?
Last week, I talked about working through things instead of “getting over” them. We don’t truly “get over” anything. We just recognize its place in our life. Our experiences, good and bad, mold us, shape us, and make us who we are. Do we want to junk some of them? Sure. But try this little exercise. Draw a line from something bad happened to something good. Just pick one thing. Maybe you had a bad experience. By sharing that experience, have you been able to help someone else? Maybe you met someone you wish you had never met. Perhaps you will be surprised to discover, without meeting them, you never would have met someone you can’t live without?
My challenge to you this week is to identify the blessings and lessons in your life. Identify the lessons you have learned from the trials in your life. Draw lines between the negative occurrences or people who have entered your life and connect them to something positive, however small, that came out of it. And if nothing good did come of it, no problem. Perhaps the time hasn’t come for you to use that lesson. File it away as a tool to use later.
What blessings and lessons can you identify right now? Tag someone who is a blessing to you or someone who could use this column to help them understand the lessons in their life. The floor is yours, Carson City.
ABOUT DIANE HANSEN
Diane Hansen is the Chief Inspiration Officer of What Works Coaching, a coaching firm that has helped people worldwide with their businesses, careers, mindsets, and profit margins. She brings to Carson City more than 17 years of experience with a wide array of clients, ranging from top corporations, motivated entrepreneurs and individuals hungry for a fresh start.
This is her fourth column for Carson Now. Other columns include:
What Works: Insecurity, fear and how not to ‘get over it’
What Works: Create Your Own Yellow Brick Road
And her first column, Running into walls? Blow them up!
