When I was in Junior High School, our gym teacher was always referring to the TV show “Get Smart.”
If you aren’t familiar, this was a 60’s slapstick comedy about this guy who was a secret agent, working for the government agency called “Control,” and the archenemy of “Control” was an organization called “Kaos,” which was pronounced just like “Chaos.”
The reason the gym teacher kept referring to this was he was an old school, by the book type who always gave us specific instructions, which we never followed.
He referred to our gym class as “organized chaos,” just like on “Get Smart.”
Unless you happen to be the actual Master Of The Universe (and you can control the weather and the trajectory of every single particle in the universe) then you know that chaos is part of life.
No matter how well you plan something, something is going to come up. Something unexpected, and something that you may or may not be able to handle.
Like it or not, how well you deal with these unexpected monkey wrenches will have a pretty good impact on how well you succeed in life.
If you always tend to crumble into a ball of emotional mush, then you’re going to have a tough time.
On the other hand, if you train yourself to see everything as an opportunity, then nothing can stop you.
This is what Napoleon Hill was referring to when he said that “within every problem lies a solution to a greater opportunity.”
Now, it might not be obvious, and it may even set you back a bit temporarily, but if you force your brain to look for opportunities instead of problems, you’ll learn to turn them around quicker.
That job you didn’t get might seem like a setback, but the next job might be even better, and may lead to even greater opportunities in a few years. Huge, prosperous opportunities that you never would have discovered if you “got” that first job.
Of course, this mindset is hard to develop. It’s certainly not easy. But with plenty of conscious, mental practice, you’ll learn to take the longer view whenever your short term situations turns south.
Just stop, and ask yourself, “How can I turn this around so I’ll benefit somehow?”
Again, the answer won’t magically pop every single time in an easy to understand format. But if you force that question in your mind every single time, you’ll start to see opportunities that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
One thing that will help considerably is if you have a plan for your life. A bit plan filled with big dreams of specific things that you are creating.
So when you DO ask that question, (How can I use this?), your brain will automatically use your goals and plans as a sorting mechanism, helping you to find those golden nuggets inside those “problems” that stop everybody else in their tracks.
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