A New Perspective

Life is full of twists, turns, ups and downs.  The ride can at times feel exhilarating and full of promise.  At other times it feels like it is one bump after another.  The fact is that life is going to be unpredictable.  The key to living the best life I can appears to be located in how I deal with these situations that life throws at me.

I am the first to admit that my coping skills have been lacking from time to time.  Instead of taking to heart the Serenity Prayer, I have stressed, fussed, moped and been generally unhappy when things weren't perfect.  Oftentimes I would be on edge and argue about surprise expenses, consider myself cursed when medical conditions arose and stress over unfinished work. I am working hard to change my focus and approach life with a new strategy.

The events of the last two weeks have meant new debt, a maxed out medical flexible spending account and the recurrence of a medical condition that I never expected to face again.  Typically, this would have sent me into a corner to cry. lick my wounds and attack anyone that came near.  However, my reaction to all of this has been very different.

I am not sure what to credit my new found attitude on, but it is welcome to stay forever.  With each of the six challenges that was placed in my path; I inspected it, determined what areas I could impact and moved forward with a plan.  It was from a logical and rational part of my mind that I moved through these events and not the typical overly emotional side.

I have certainly had my bad moments, but they have been short lived and not a place from which I made decisions or judged the overall situation.  I believe that being angry about a situation, sad about a struggle or upset over an outcome is perfectly normal.  We each need that time to get it out; however, it can't be the place where we remain.

It also helps to put everything in perspective.  Life is not going to be perfect all the time and we all have our struggles.  However, to be alive and well is truly an amazing blessing.  I hope to waste less of my time wishing things were different and more of it formulating a plan to live the best life I can.

It feels refreshing to look at challenges and struggles in a new way.  I look forward to finding new ways to approach life that will challenge me to think differently.