We all have moments in life where it seems the world is just not feeling us at the time. That a nice way of putting what I really should say but I digress. Negative things happen to you that seem to be 100% intentional and 0% random. You think “Yeah, there are 7+ billion people in this world, but this FU was just for me.” I have reason to suspect in that situation you were correct. Somehow, someway, this world of random occurrences puts that on pause and unloads with some deliberate manifestations. It works both ways. You ever go for something that was a long shot, but you get it? You were underqualified for that job. Your credit was not good enough to get approved for that loan. That person you wanted to date you felt was out of your league…. was. I’ll revisit this later. What we are going to discuss is when the world’s attitude toward you is neutral and there is still a huge barrier in the way and it’s you.
We (yes, I’m guilty too) tend to be our biggest opposition. Yes, things happen to us but dwelling on it? That’s on us. Being so upset that we don’t want to do anything? Us. Not giving our all because everything else around us is going wrong? Yup, that’s on us too. Some of the best advice you can get in life is someone telling you to control what you can control. If you’ve never heard that, I just told you. It will take an unnecessary load off you but also limit the dwelling, inactivity, and half-assing. We need to understand that negative things will occur. They can be out of our control but sometimes we put ourselves in a position for negativity. We tend to be gluttons for punishment. Somewhere deep inside we feel if we continue suffering the world/life/God will see us and give us mercy. This may or may not be the case but I’m here to tell you, you don’t want to discover you are on the “may not” side. Cut your losses and start recovering. The quicker you do this the quicker the recovery. You can fall and get up or wait until you roll down a mountain and must climb back up. I’ve rolled down enough mountains. I’m a huge supporter of the get up approach.
I’ve touched on how life sways from “For You to Neutral to Against You” but haven’t touched on how the “For You” can have you stand in your way also. Good things happen to us. We then start to forget that it didn’t have to happen. We begin to get entitled. That piece of good fortune was a gift. Failure to understand that will have you sitting idle waiting for the next “gift” when you could have made 10 occur yourself in the time the next one comes, if it ever does. Imagine how great these “gifts” would be if we are busting our tails trying to make something happen ourselves. Let’s touch on those good fortunes mentioned earlier. The job? They needed someone to start asap and you were available. The loan? The underwriting team were one closed loan from a bonus. The relationship? The one before you was who they normally go for and it didn’t go well so guess who got a chance?
In closing, it’s time to get out of your way. Don’t curl up in a ball when things go wrong. Control what you can control. Keep an eye out for the entitled behavior when you get a “gift”. It can be the most detrimental choice you make in life. Don’t stand in your way because you can stop you. You control your thoughts, you control your actions, and you know how you think. You have no shot with you as your opponent.
Food for Thought….You do the dishes!
