Dealing with difficult moments

When difficult situations pop up… there's a terrible script that pops up for me. 

It's a toxic myth that I seem to tell myself when bad situations pop up…

The toxic myth is "life is supposed to be easy."

Embracing the suck, leaning into the uncomfortable situations and sitting in uncertain moments is a struggle for me.

This past week of having some solid gut punches reminds me how much better I must get at appreciating the challenges life brings.

A great story of one of the greats, Thomas Edison, to meditate on resiliency and ever forward thinking:

At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison returned home early one evening from another day at the laboratory. Shortly after dinner, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production campus a few miles away.

Fire engines from eight nearby towns rushed to the scene, but they could not contain the blaze. Fueled by the strange chemicals in the various buildings, green and yellow flames shot up six and seven stories, threatening to destroy the entire empire Edison had spent his life building.

Edison calmly but quickly made his way to the fire, through the now hundreds of onlookers and devastated employees, looking for his son. “Go get your mother and all her friends,” he told his son with childlike excitement. “They’ll never see a fire like this again.”

Don’t worry, Edison calmed him, “It’s all right. We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish”

Years and years of priceless records, prototypes, and research were turned to ash.

The buildings which had been made of what was supposedly fire proofed concrete had been insured for only a fraction of their worth.

Edison and his investors were covered for about a third of the damage.

Still, Edison wasn’t heartbroken, not as he could have and probably should have been.

Within about three weeks, the factory was partially back up and running. Within a month, its men were working two shifts a day churning out new products the world had never seen.

Despite a loss of almost $1 million dollars, Edison would marshal enough energy to make nearly $10 million dollars in revenue that year. *

The great leaders don’t allow negative circumstances to affect their enthusiasm to make the most of their short time on earth.

If you’re having a tough week, it’s okay. I keep reminding myself life happens FOR you not to you. 

Onward,

Matt

*Story directly taken from Ryan Holiday Obstacle Is The Way