#117 – When did you learn the most?

"That you will learn most from the situations

you did not choose."

––The Facts of Life, by Padráig Ó Tuama

Did you learn more when you landed that job you so much wanted, or when you got fired?

When you married the love of your life, or when you realized you didn't love them that much after all?

When you finally moved to the city of your dreams, or when you started to notice the rats crawling down the subway tracks?

We love to believe we’re the authors of our lives, crafting our destiny with each choice.

But is that true?

Was that board meeting when you shot yourself in the foot just a coincidence? Or that time when you took on a project far outside your wheelhouse and then floundered? Or when you decided it was a good idea to get into that car with that man when you were 12 only to leap out minutes later, your integrity in danger?

The problem is that all too often we close our ears, eyes, and heart to the lessons in these moments, chalking them up to bad luck.

We slip into the victim's shoes – "this bad thing happened to me, woe is me!" – and, in doing so, let ourselves off the hook.

But that’s denial. And as long as we stay there, we won’t grow.

The useful response? To accept the rocks we're thrown as an integral part of life – moments that build us and stretch us and make us rise.

What part of your life would you have erased, and now realize made you who you are?

Love,

Carolina