I’ve never really been the pessimistic type and believe that some measure of good can be found in just about every situation. When it comes to personal growth, I’ve had a couple of good examples in my own life.
When I was a senior in high school I had the misfortune of getting sick with mononucleosis and subsequently missed six weeks of school. By the time that it was all over I was severely behind on some of my classwork and had missed out on a lot of what seniors have fun doing their senior year. But it wasn’t all bad news. I used some of that free time at home to improve on guitar and at web design. At the time I was really just starting out in both and the amount that I advanced during those six weeks has always amazed me.
At the time I had been dating a girl for a year and a half. It was a rotten relationship that was going nowhere, I just couldn’t see it at the time. She was a bit obsessive and seemed to even be angry at me for being sick and not being able to spend my every waking moment with her. And so having mono drove division between us and helped me to see things more clearly than I had before. We broke up a month later and then she went completely crazy which only affirmed to me that I had made the right decision.
And now here I sit on the couch with my broken ankle. I’ve been missing some work and my household chores have been piling up on me (though my wife has been doing a lot of them for me). Once again though I find myself able to draw some good out of this situation: I’ve been writing, a lot. The amount of work I’ve been able to get done on my novel is just fantastic.
When troubles come your way, it’s extremely easy to dwell on how it is negatively affecting you. I encourage you however to take some time to reflect on what good can come out of the bad situation you are in. Maybe your problem is finances, goodness knows I’ve been there too. Last year was probably one of the most stressful in my life simply due to how bad our financial situation was. But we made it through and learned lessons in frugality that others who haven’t faced similar situations can’t fully grasp. We still aren’t great financially but it continues to amaze me how we have no debt but people making two or three times what we make are thousands of dollars in debt.
It may sound cliché but try to look on the bright side of things when trouble comes your way. I believe there is a purpose to life and its not just a bunch of random events. Maybe the purpose of breaking my ankle was so that I would finally start writing fiction in a way that my dream of finishing a novel would actually come true some day. Or maybe I’m just not very coordinated.