Y’all, it has been a week. I still feel shocked when thinking about some of the things that have happened over the past 7 days. I won’t go into the details, at least not right now, but let’s just say it was a very unexpected and negative experience. What I wanted share today though, is that it’s important to look for something that you can learn from every situation, whether the situation was a positive or negative experience for you.
Take a step back and look at every situation as objectively as you can and ask yourself, ‘what can I learn from this?’, ‘How can I grow from this?’, and ‘Is there anything that I should do differently if this happens again?’. It’s also important to acknowledge what you’ve done right and celebrate those small wins as well.
For what happened this week, I definitely didn’t respond (initially) in the best way with what I was faced with, and it took my taking the time to reflect on what happened to realize that and apologize for my part in what went wrong. In the moment, we tend to think we’re right and the other person is an idiot – raise your hand…. I know I’m not alone in that. But after the moment passed and I thought about what really was going on, I saw that my response was way off. Now, would I have recognized where I was wrong if I hadn’t taken time to reflect back on what had just happened? Over time, probably. But there’s so much more to gain from being intentional about self improvement, and in being intentional about finding something…. anything…. to learn. I think that something can be learned or reinforced from just about any situation. If 2020 has given us nothing else, it has taught us the importance of self-care. Being intentional about learning and growing to be the best you is part of that. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also note this: sometimes, the fact is that you have done absolutely nothing wrong. Don’t apologize if you’ve done nothing wrong, and absolutely do not accept abuse of any form. I’m speaking to everyday situations here in this microblog, and not the extremes where you would be safer and better served to bring in professionals to help you. If you need help, do not hesitate to get it.
I think you would be a little surprised by what you notice if you take the time to think about things with the sole goal of looking for something to learn from it. Sometimes you have to look hard, real hard, but the lessons are there. You just have to make the choice to be patient and reflect from a neutral point of view. And did I mention you need to be patient?
XO
Jan's Life 