Sometimes EVEN when we've made wonderful plans, we bump into life. I know without a doubt, that no matter how much planning I did I was not prepared for everything that happened. In looking back, it was the unexpected "surprises" that had the biggest impact on where I am today.
Creating visions, setting goals, making plans and taking action are very valuable/powerful ways to take charge of our lives. It helps to do all we can to ensure that our life moves in the direction that will allow for the outcome we're committed to. But still life happens and "surprises" interrupt our plans. I'm calling them surprises. I used to call them problems and they caused me great upset. I imagine you do too. Thanks to what Mark Nepo, wrote in "The Book of Awakening" , entry of April 21st, I have begun to think of the things that interrupt my best laid plans as surprises. You may want to consider doing the same.
I would be married until death do us part, and I would be staying in Rochester with my Associates at Vitalwork until I chose to retire - and then think seriously of heading into a warm and sunny climate in the winter - snowbirds as they are referred to in Florida.
Vitalwork didn't work out and then the marriage came to an end. A networking lunch I had with a handsome gentleman, seven years ago, was the beginning of an amazing relationship that sourced a move to the sunny South exactly one year later. I planned all that I could plan - and then life happened. Much of it looked like breakdowns at the time. Now I choose to look at it as the Surprises of being alive - and I've come to see that those surprises are the very things that are the most valuable gifts we are given - the ones that allow us to grow the most.
What allows for the inclusion of those surprises with minimum upset is believing that everything is in your life for a reason even when you can't imagine what that reason may be. In fact it's not the challenge or the disappointment that is the source of a great deal of suffering but our attitude about it. Perhaps you too can begin to think of those interruptions in your well thought out plans for yourself, as the surprises that come along to allow you to grow.
People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them. ~Epictetus
During tough times, do you spend too much time feeling sorry for yourself, or, can you, with gratitude...learn how to dance in the rain?
"The greatest discovery of this generation is that human beings can alter their life by altering their attitudes." I believe this with all my heart, and over the years have seen it happen countless times. What most people fail to realize is that your attitude not only impacts your happiness and your success, it also can impact the happiness and success of all the people around you...your family, your friends, and your peers at work. Attitudes truly are contagious, and from time to time we need to ask ourselves..."is mine worth catching?"
~William James
