What does this mean? That is a very good question. Each person can make each situation mean something different. I have talked a lot about how we see things and how our thoughts about our circumstances in life can drive our feelings actions and results. Just as a reminder, a circumstance is an uncontrollable event in life, like the weather or the boss you have. It is a fact that can be proven in a court of law.
Our circumstances happen all around us. There is no stopping that from occurring. It is how we think about those circumstances, however, that will determine everything for us. Here is an example, and I’m going to use my current circumstance to explain this. My husband and I have been trying to sell our house for some time now with no luck. We have recently put our house back on the market and finally found a buyer. We were so excited, so we started looking for our dream home. We did not find anything that we both liked and were beginning to get very discouraged, as our new buyers would be moving into our house within the month. We made a decision to rent an apartment for one year, save as much money as possible and then possibly build our dream home or find one that is perfect for us.
Now, there are two ways to look at this. One is to be completely inconvenienced going from a house to an apartment, complaining every day that there is no room for anything and making a big deal about how we won’t be able to ever have guests over due to the lack of space. Dwelling on the fact that due to the lack of storage space, we had to store items under every bed and in every available closet space, etc. Getting frustrated at how tiny the washer/dryer is compared to the one we had and so on.
The other way to look at this circumstance is to say that it is an exciting new adventure. That we have lived in our house for over 20 years and this is a new, fresh start. We can now save money that we couldn’t save before. It is a cute and cozy apartment and we were able to accomplish putting everything into spaces so that there is no clutter. We won’t have to mow the lawn or spend money on our pool or shovel snow for the next year.
It is all about what you make things mean. Take a look at your life and try to imagine how you may be thinking about the circumstances in it. Be curious as to why other people are just not bothered by those same exact circumstances. It is because they are thinking about those circumstances differently than you are. They may be pulling out only the good parts of the situation and making those a big deal, where you may be only pulling out the negative parts of the situation and making those a big deal.
It all boils down to what you make things mean in your mind and how you think about them. If you want to learn more about this in your life, contact me for your complimentary mini-session.