Why? Why did this happen to me? I have followed every rule in the book and never faltered from the plan. Why me?
This is a “life happens” moment. We will all at one time or another experience it. It causes emotional anguish, heartache and disappointment but most of all complete and utter shock. When life happens it usually involves losing something we value. This could be a relationship, a job, a business, a house, status or money. What we mostly lose (or perceive as losing) is control.
You fight, you kick, you cry, you go numb, you bargain or beg. You are firing at all cylinders trying to process what just happened. Your life is changed forever.
Now the waves of fear of uncertainty start to roll in and overwhelm you. The wheels are set in motion and you are trying to figure out how to get ahead of it. What comes next? What should I do? What CAN I do?
Although we don’t feel we have much control over the situation the truth is we do. It may not be the exact outcome of what you are currently hoping for but you will come out on the other side of it intact and possibly even in a better place than you imagined. I watched a TEDtalk a couple weeks ago called Why Comfort Will Ruin Your Life by Bill Eckstrom. The message given in this talk is that growth only happens in discomfort. Comfort makes us complacent and stagnant. Discomfort motivates and drives us to change our behavior, therefore, our lives. Counsellors and therapists know this to be true. The only way we change or rid ourselves of unwanted or undesirable behaviors is if they don’t serve us anymore and start to make our lives too uncomfortable. For some it may take hitting bottom. We are forced to look beyond what we already know.
I have myself learned some great lessons from the School of Hard Knocks and value those lessons as much as my conventional university classes. I gained better coping skills, formed a stronger support network, learned risks and uncertainty can open and provide great possibilities. Life redirected me many times and letting go was one of the hardest lessons of all.
This is why when I was offered an opportunity to host a radio show on Voice America I knew it had to be called Life Happens. Let’s Talk. We all as human beings share life happens moments and I believe it is in the sharing of these stories that we can support one another through them. Personal setbacks are part of life and I believe we can together find new ways of taking them on.
Life Happens. Let’s Talk show will be coming soon on August 14th on the Empowerment Channel. I hope you will join me and my guests in bringing your ideas, hopes and struggles to those who are listening and needing support and advice in navigating through their life happens.
Dearly beloved,
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life.
– Let’ Go Crazy, Prince (1984)
