Running out the door. Slam the car door. Traffic. So much traffic! I’m going to be late.
“Story of my freaking life!” I would say to myself. “Figures. This is going to screw up my whole day.”
This was my daily attitude toward my circumstances. No matter what happened, I’d approach life with this lens, frustrated that life wasn’t going my way – until I received a simple truth.
I started asking a new question. How we respond in moments of change or unexpected shifts has the power to either boost or deplete our life force energy. In short, I listened to my sweet mom. It didn’t matter what curve ball was thrown my way, she would lovingly look at me as say…
“NOW BABE, WHAT DOES THIS MAKE POSSIBLE?”
Well Mom, it has finally sunk in. I ask this to myself all the time. I have learned how to force myself to start to respond differently.
See you can take one of two attitudes towards circumstances. Either you believe that life is ultimately here FOR you or you believe that life is ultimately happening TO you. When you choose to see life in the positive, asking this question is an exercise in seeing life’s possibilities through a proactive problem-solving lens as well as creating a deeper understanding within yourself. It puts the power back in your hands. When asked with compassion, this question opens your ability to see new opportunities and even press in emotionally to your reaction.
For example.
I was planning a transformational mentor training event for my doTERRA teams with my partner Nick Hendrix. After much brainstorming, planning, and days invested into this multi-day training, my team decided to host an event that was scheduled for the next weekend. I knew it would be too many back to back events for my audience and Nick and I decided that our event should be cancelled to support my team in their event.
“Ok, Mary.” I asked myself. “What does this cancellation make possible?”
For the problem-solving aspect of this question, I realized a much better alternative to my original, in-person event. Host this training online.
And here is the awesome part. I would be able to reach a bigger audience, keep costs low for my teams, and schedule it on a better date that worked for more people. Win win.
This change also allowed me to support my team in a deeper way and practice my flexibility and another one of my favorite attitudes towards life.
IN ORDER TO GET TO A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE AND RELEASE THE TEMPTATION OF FEELING DEFLATED AND FRUSTRATED, I HAD TO APPROACH THIS EVENT WITH THE ATTITUDE OF “THIS OR SOMETHING BETTER.”
I had the attitude going in that “I am going to create this event or something better.” I made sure that I wasn’t attached to it happening in the exact first way that I set out to execute it. I was open. I believe that life is happening FOR me. Yes, there was a MASSIVE change in our plans that required a huge mental and logistical shift – but I knew it was making something even better possible.
Another way you can ask this question is:
“WHAT’S THE GOOD THAT CAN COME OF THIS?”
There is always a silver lining. Life is always rooting FOR you. Life LOVES you. Even in the difficult.
My dears, this is such a gift to your psyche when you can see new possibilities. It opens you up. You find solutions. You get creative. You practice your strength and your gifts. When circumstances shift, pause to breathe and release the attachment that it has to go the way you thought it should go and redefine the possibilities. Choose to see that THIS could be the best thing to happen.
