When we’re shopping for groceries, my son and I have a tradition of trying different kinds of cheese.
One weekend, I was admiring the sweets. I said to my son, “if I was the almighty creator of the world, I would make cheese, chips, cookies and cakes good for you and broccoli bad for you”.
Without skipping a beat, he replied, “if I was the almighty creator of the world, I’d make everything good for you!”
I was taken aback by the purity of his response. I started thinking about why, from my perspective, there had to be a “bad”?
I have lived a lot longer than he has and I have had many ‘bad’ things happen in my life…or were they really ‘bad’? Each ‘bad’ event provided a level of growth for me that would not have happened otherwise.
These things I perceived ‘bad’, in the end, provided invaluable growth opportunities;
Being diagnosed with thyroid cancer when my wife was 6 months pregnant. My cancer diagnosis and treatment, particularly on the horizon of me becoming a father, sent me on a journey of health and fitness that likely would not have happened without that. I’ve been cancer free for over 15 years and will likely die of something else…I feel very blessed!
My mother was hospitalized during COVID where I was unable to see her. She passed away from the virus with no one she knew around her.
The level of helplessness I felt not being able to go see my mother when she was hospitalized and knowing she died without any family around her affected me deeply.
Losing her was devastating…knowing she was alone made it worse. She had a level of commitment to keeping our family together that, up until that point, I took for granted. This forced me to make some changes to how I am committed to my family now…I cherish every moment.
A large client pulled back and my business was losing tens of thousands of dollars a month. This went on for over 7 months. I thought I was going to lose my business…lose my livelihood.
At that time, I had a decent amount of debt and was not prepared for an event like this. I was navigating circumstances around cash flow and contract negotiations I had never had to deal with before. This forced me to retool my finances. Get a more appropriate credit line. And build systems into my business.
But the gift?
This taught me more sophisticated hypothetical financial modeling. It shifted focus to profits and debt reduction. My skills and my business are much healthier for it.
In each of these circumstances, I was forced to face something I would not choose for myself. But I did have a choice on how I was going to respond.
With some distance, I was able to see that each one of these ‘unwanted events’ provided an opportunity for me to grow. And grow in a way I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to do.
Something ‘Good’ came from something ‘Bad’.
How have ‘unwanted events’ have impacted you?
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