For most of us, our formal education and other life experiences don’t give us any information about crisis management, problem solving, or even problem recognition. Sometimes those first moments of a crisis can be crucial. One way to explain this is to think about what happens between a mugger and his unsuspecting victim.
When you’re being mugged, the number one edge that your attacker has over you is those first few seconds when he steps up to you and pulls a knife, holds up, or takes a swing at you. That moment of shock is a state of mind that he is actually counting on to give him the time he needs to victimize you. Now imagine if you knew your attacker was about to strike. If you saw him coming, he wouldn’t have this advantage. Of course, you would never be totally calm in this situation you would definitely go into high alert and arousal. But the difference is, you wouldn’t panic and fall apart — not with the mugger and not with your life.
The fact is that despite our best-laid plans and deepest desires, real life isn’t always easy. It isn’t a success-only journey for any of us. Going through life can at times feel like going through a wind tunnel. Sometimes life comes at you in a steady breeze; other times it’s like a category five hurricane. The storms of life may not always have happy endings, but they can at least be dealt with and sometimes even put you in a better place on the other side.
We are all products of our learning history, and if there were never any challenges, we wouldn’t develop mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Its been said that if you face adversity in life and you don’t learn from it, it’s a penalty. If you learn from it, at least you can consider it tuition. I’m not saying that changing your attitude of approach or having an action plan is going to keep you from having problems or keep you from the challenges that life is going to serve up. It won’t. You may still hit the same bumps but the way you walk through this world will be different.
It’s sort of like this: Imagine someone who is a black belt in martial arts walking down a dark alley late at night. Then imagine someone who doesn’t have that training going down that same alley. The difference in their experience of that walk is huge.
When you’re being mugged, the number one edge that your attacker has over you is those first few seconds when he steps up to you and pulls a knife, holds up, or takes a swing at you. That moment of shock is a state of mind that he is actually counting on to give him the time he needs to victimize you. Now imagine if you knew your attacker was about to strike. If you saw him coming, he wouldn’t have this advantage. Of course, you would never be totally calm in this situation you would definitely go into high alert and arousal. But the difference is, you wouldn’t panic and fall apart — not with the mugger and not with your life.
The fact is that despite our best-laid plans and deepest desires, real life isn’t always easy. It isn’t a success-only journey for any of us. Going through life can at times feel like going through a wind tunnel. Sometimes life comes at you in a steady breeze; other times it’s like a category five hurricane. The storms of life may not always have happy endings, but they can at least be dealt with and sometimes even put you in a better place on the other side.
We are all products of our learning history, and if there were never any challenges, we wouldn’t develop mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Its been said that if you face adversity in life and you don’t learn from it, it’s a penalty. If you learn from it, at least you can consider it tuition. I’m not saying that changing your attitude of approach or having an action plan is going to keep you from having problems or keep you from the challenges that life is going to serve up. It won’t. You may still hit the same bumps but the way you walk through this world will be different.
It’s sort of like this: Imagine someone who is a black belt in martial arts walking down a dark alley late at night. Then imagine someone who doesn’t have that training going down that same alley. The difference in their experience of that walk is huge.
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