Maybe something today will not work out as you would like it to. If that happens, you have 2 choices.
You can wallow in annoyance and frustration or you can smile and commit to learning from it.
Those that achieve success in life tend to do the latter. Does that mean they don’t have annoyances and frustrating things happen? Of course not.
What is does mean is that they choose not to waste energy and resources on negative thoughts any longer than is necessary to understand the meaning in the event.
They smile, accept, learn and move on.
You can transform any event into something of meaning by choosing your perspective.
Action – What happened recently that made you really annoyed? How could you have responded to it differently? And what could you learn from it?
Personal growth and lifelong achievement is a process of responding appropriately and creating change.
(Share one of your own ‘frown to smile’ experiences by using the comments box.)
Hi Nancy
I love the messages you send.
I just got home after attending an amazing 3-day conference in Montreal.
This message reminded me of an incident that happened as I was frantically packing my suitcase last Thursday. I’m usually a polite, calm person. However, a very annoying lady called who would not listen to my statements that…I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to listen…I didn’t need or want her products…and I didn’t have any money to buy them. I couldn’t turn her off and we ended up screaming at each other. In my life time there have been only a couple of people who have pushed me to that level.
On the weekend, I learned an excellent response that would have acknowleded her efforts but told her I wasn’t at all interested.
“Thank you for sharing”. However, I have no interest. A much more dignified response that hopefully would have cut her off at the pass before she forced me to be a crazy lady to get rid of her.
So, “Thank you for sharing” is a great response to any statement that you don’t agree with or aren’t interested in exploring. Then you can follow it with a simple statement that dismisses you from the situation.
The phone call from the above lady upset me for a number of hours. Something like that will never happen again!