Last week, I summarized a story that I recently read about a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean. While the carrot weakens when exposed to hot water and the egg hardens, the coffee bean turns the water into something magnificent. The point of the story is to strive to be a coffee bean and have a positive impact during adversity.
If you want to grow, you will have to face adversity. If you want to reach your potential, you will have to face challenges. If you want to successfully navigate life, you will need a healthy perspective of adversity. Here are a few thoughts for you to consider as you face the challenges of life:
- Acceptance: Realizing adversity impacts everyone, not just you. All families have health challenges. All families deal with death. Uncertainty impacts everyone at some point. Don’t base your view of life on Facebook or other social media outlets. Those depictions are not indicative of everyday life.
- Humility: You can’t know everything or have all the answers. You will need others at times. Ask for help. Others will need you at times. Seek a healthy self-view, but balance that with a humble approach to life. People are drawn to confident humility. Confident in values and ability, but humble in approaching others.
- Opportunity not Obstacle: Consider challenges in life as opportunities to have impact, to grow, and to do something noteworthy. When obstacles become opportunities, perspective changes, and life takes on a different purpose. People are drawn to this approach, and the extraordinary takes place.
- Steps not Leaps: When dealing with challenges, walking in uncertain times, or navigating through adverse conditions, don’t try to figure everything out at once. Just focus on the right next step. You may not be able to see very far down the path, but just focus on the next step. Don’t sit idle but take that step. If you need to evaluate and take a step back, that’s fine. Don’t freeze with indecision and panic. Just take a step in what you sense is the right direction.
- Just Keep Showing Up: Many are inclined to shut down in tough times. Don’t succumb to the feeling of giving up regardless of how frustrating it may be. Just keep showing up to work, attending the meeting, going to class, writing the book, taking the treatment, or making the sales call. You may have to slow down, adjust the course, or take a breather, but keep moving forward. The finish line or resolution may be closer than you think.
- Strategy may Change but Persistence Continues: You may need to change your approach, your plan, or your goals, but persistence remains. You haven’t failed until you give up. Trying a different approach or pursuing a different goal is not a bad thing. In fact, failing at something does not make you a failure. It just makes you human.
- Impact over Achievement: Who you are impacting may be more important than what you are achieving. During adversity, consider how others are being impacted. Take the focus off yourself and focus on others. When you can redirect that focus, your perspective changes. There is now purpose in the pain! Seek impact!
Those are just a few considerations. Life is tough. The scars of life help us remember but they originate from pain. Funny thing is there are no scars from easy times. The scars of life are going to change us. Adversity impacts all of us.
Will it weaken you (the carrot)? Will it harden you (the egg)? Will it be the means for you to change your “world” (the bean)?
Let’s all seek to be coffee beans!
