Remember this when things fall apart

By Bill Fox/Columnist

Even the very best people have had to endure terrible misfortune! Just ask Nelson Mandela, Jesus, or Ghandi. You must realize that life is not all fun and games. There’s suffering to be met, and you’re gonna meet it. But trust in the big picture.

At this moment you are exactly where you are meant to be. When things come to an end, beliefs shatter, and dreams fall apart…guess what’s next? Growth.

Whatever you’ve lost, it makes room in your life for something better. Just ask Harland, whose son died and wife left him. He couldn’t hold a job. With little to lose, he finally started that restaurant he had dreamed about. Colonel (Harland) Sanders had his old life fall apart so that at age 65, he could get on track with his Kentucky Fried fate. After making millions, his life became pretty finger lickin’ good!

Consider Joanne, a divorced and unemployed single mom. Joanne saw herself as the “biggest failure she knew.” But hitting rock bottom provided her with guilt free permission to spend hours in cafes, writing out stories about magic. Joanne went from rags to riches, as her stories became the best-selling Harry Potter series.

So in the words of Walt Disney, who was fired from his first job at a newspaper, “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” So show your teeth and start smiling, it could be your turn next.

Your ancestors are the survivors of thousands of years of life with threatening weather, war and famine. That means it is in your DNA to strive in times of adversity. To summon your inner greatness, life must place severe tests on you so that you’ll consider better strategies and directions for your life. You will find a way through bad luck – you have before and you will again. Life isn’t fair – but that can be a good thing because we can turn luck in our favor. Just remember, it’s a part of evolution that “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

Take the seven-day challenge and keep these thoughts in mind for the next week:

• Hitting rock bottom is a time to grow.
• Constant growth happens when someone can actually see that something better (or greater) can come from adversity.
• People who believe, in some way, that life “shouldn’t be like this” may place themselves in a victim mentality! By accepting reality, we will all endure heartache, pain, and some degree of hurt, sadness and really hard times in this human experience. When we can experience the not-so-great feelings that arise, we can understand ourselves on a deeper level, and we can be more adaptable to choose an alternative path. Victim mode will keep you stuck!
• There will be challenges that come up in life and they will always give me an opportunity for growth. I am responsible for looking at things differently when my mind/ego wants to direct me to question my self worth. I have the potential to learn and grow from all circumstances in life.
• When we hit rock bottom – which may happen more than once in our lifetime – we must still have love for ourselves, love for our dreams and appreciate the love we get from others.
• Finally from Mark Watney in the movie The Martian: “Every human being has a basic instinct: to help each other out. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search… If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception.”
• When I compare my circumstances to the many, many who are much worse off, I remember that I am right where I should be…and I am being taken care of.