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Author: Catherine Pulsifer, © 2012
Who hasn't faced adversity in their life? We all have stories about facing adversity in our lives. The difference is what we did to overcome it. We all have two choices:
1. to do nothing, and just give up
2. to look at the adversity as an opportunity
For me personally, I could write for days about many different situations where adversity challenged my life. Let me tell you of one experience where I almost let adversity win.
We had a glass studio, which was located 50 feet from our home. A couple of years ago we experienced an awful winter; we had a lot of snow and ice. To make a long story short the weight of the ice and snow collapsed the roof on our studio, taking with it one of our sources of income. Before it did collapse, we got on the roof and tried to remove the snow and ice, but when you have 5 feet of ice and temperatures of minus 20 Celsius, it was pretty difficult to do.
We had a contractor come in to help us try and secure the roof by bracing. In the end, there was nothing that could be done. The roof came down. We had moved a lot of our goods and tools from the studio but we lost a lot also; glass, kilns, workbenches, to name only a few of the items. It was a devastating experience.
Here we were in the middle of winter with our studio collapsed. We couldn't work as we had literally piled all the material in a building we were not using. We could have done one of two things:
1. we could of simply said that we can no longer conduct our glass business, let me tell you that this was certainly a thought that crossed our mind
2. or, we could find a way to get our studio back up and running
We picked option 2. We had a large barn that we were not using. So we renovated the barn, redesigned our working area and today we have a nicer studio than we previously had. If the adversity we faced had not happened, we probably would still be working in the old studio - a studio that was less efficient.
Adversity:
You can make excuses, or take action.
You can see adversity as a friend, or as an excuse to give up or give in.
You can have the "poor me" attitude, or you can say something better will come out of this.
You can embrace it, or you can stick your head in the sand and hope it will go away.
My point in sharing our experience with you is this: don't be afraid of adversity. While it is discouraging and it can be draining, look at it as an opportunity. Think of different ways to overcome the adversity. How we respond to adversity will determine our success and our happiness in life. May you find adversity in your life one that will make you stronger, more determined, and allow your creativity to find ways to overcome it for the better. Remember the wisdom of Horace, who once said, "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. "
Who hasn't faced adversity in their life? We all have stories about facing adversity in our lives. The difference is what we did to overcome it. We all have two choices:
1. to do nothing, and just give up
2. to look at the adversity as an opportunity
For me personally, I could write for days about many different situations where adversity challenged my life. Let me tell you of one experience where I almost let adversity win.
We had a glass studio, which was located 50 feet from our home. A couple of years ago we experienced an awful winter; we had a lot of snow and ice. To make a long story short the weight of the ice and snow collapsed the roof on our studio, taking with it one of our sources of income. Before it did collapse, we got on the roof and tried to remove the snow and ice, but when you have 5 feet of ice and temperatures of minus 20 Celsius, it was pretty difficult to do.
We had a contractor come in to help us try and secure the roof by bracing. In the end, there was nothing that could be done. The roof came down. We had moved a lot of our goods and tools from the studio but we lost a lot also; glass, kilns, workbenches, to name only a few of the items. It was a devastating experience.
Here we were in the middle of winter with our studio collapsed. We couldn't work as we had literally piled all the material in a building we were not using. We could have done one of two things:
1. we could of simply said that we can no longer conduct our glass business, let me tell you that this was certainly a thought that crossed our mind
2. or, we could find a way to get our studio back up and running
We picked option 2. We had a large barn that we were not using. So we renovated the barn, redesigned our working area and today we have a nicer studio than we previously had. If the adversity we faced had not happened, we probably would still be working in the old studio - a studio that was less efficient.
Adversity:
You can make excuses, or take action.
You can see adversity as a friend, or as an excuse to give up or give in.
You can have the "poor me" attitude, or you can say something better will come out of this.
You can embrace it, or you can stick your head in the sand and hope it will go away.
My point in sharing our experience with you is this: don't be afraid of adversity. While it is discouraging and it can be draining, look at it as an opportunity. Think of different ways to overcome the adversity. How we respond to adversity will determine our success and our happiness in life. May you find adversity in your life one that will make you stronger, more determined, and allow your creativity to find ways to overcome it for the better. Remember the wisdom of Horace, who once said, "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. "