Today we are celebrating the ability in the disability. Paralympians not only stand for the celebration of human spirit but every Paralympic athlete is a tale of great courage and human potential unperturbed by great personal tragedy.
Life often throws at us difficult situations that are in our Circle of Concern, where there is little we can do to make the situation better. Neither can we ignore and move for it is a reality that is to be faced.
I’m sure most of us have never and probably will never face anything as challenging as any of these athletes had faced and overcome. But we have our problems and they do seem big enough to disturb us.
So what do we do then? We can stand there..cry and whine..complaint about or we can ask.
‘What does this make possible?’
I learnt this question from a Contemporary Leader and Virtual Mentor of many Michael Hyatt and it has ever since given me a new way to handle many seemingly difficult issues. Let’s look at some every day situations in our circle of concern and how asking this questions can enable us to handle them better.
Situation : Stuck in a traffic Jam.
‘What does this make possible?’ : ‘To Listen to one more chapter in an audio book’
Situation: On the road somebody cuts me and drives dangerously.
‘What does this make possible?‘: ‘ To Practice Forgiveness and Compassion’
Situation: Spouse is late from work.
‘What does this make possible?’: ‘To catch up some ‘me’ time’
Situation: Best friend moves out of town.
‘What does this make possible?’: ‘To go see a new place while meeting her’
Situation:My brat cousin throws a tantrum.
‘What does this make possible?’:‘To Practice Patience’
Situation: My phone/mp3 player loses charge during my run
‘What does this make possible?’: ‘To experience the silence’
Situation: Dry Holi.
‘What does this make possible?’:: ‘To learn to conserve water’
Situation: Personal struggles.
‘What does this make possible?’: ‘To Practice Faith and show resilience’
When we learn to take the everyday setbacks at our stride, this attitude often helps us face the big obstacles with much more resilience and helps us become a better person everyday. Just because I wrote about it does not mean I win at this every time. I fail more often than I succeed. But I try better next time around and better my success rate.
So What does this make possible for you ?
Thank you for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts and I am waiting for your further post thanks once again.
This is the one question that makes us pause cribbing about adversity and think about it in a more creative manner. Well written with a lot of examples 🙂
Thanks. It’s true for technology as well, with every technology comes its myriad uses and every adversity too brings with it a whole new set of opportunities who pause to ask , ‘what does this make possible?’