What do you do when life throws you a few curve balls?
Today I had a nice, organized list of tasks to accomplish. Before I even had a chance to look at my list, my mother had a crisis of epic proportions: she couldn’t watch ANY of her favorite shows because our satellite service provider is currently not carrying that particular network.
My morning was derailed.
What could I do about this problem?
Obviously, there’s not much I could do about the cause of the problem. I have no control over the two companies who are in contract negotiations and may or may not reach an agreement.
All I could do was figure out how I could respond to put out the fire. Unfortunately, I felt like I was wasting time when I could have been checking items off my task list, and it made me irritated.
The fact of the matter was that actually doing the things I had to do to help my mom by putting out the fire was not what irritated me.
It was the interruption of my plans and the detour in my day that got me out-of-sorts.
You may be truly having a crisis of epic proportions.
Do you feel like you’re suffering through a crisis that you don’t deserve and that’s ruined your dreams?
Did your spouse let you down when your marriage didn’t turn out like you had planned?
It stinks.
It’s not fair, it’s not right, it shouldn’t have happened. But, it did happen, so the question is HOW will you respond to this life-derailment?
Will you make the necessary repairs, get back on track, and continue on, or will you remain a heap of crumpled, useless, metal?
I realized this morning that, on one hand, I could complain, snap at my mom for wanting to watch her TV shows, and blame the people who couldn’t reach an agreement to provide us with services we’ve paid for and expected to receive.
On the other hand, I could accept the fact that I can’t control the network or the service provider, I could do what I could to enable my mom to watch her shows, and then I could get back to my list.
Complaining, blaming and lashing out at my mom wouldn’t change a thing. She still couldn’t watch her TV shows, and I would be even more worked up and annoyed.
As irritating as the whole interruption was, I had to deal with it, which is what I did. I’d like to sit here and tell you I didn’t complain at all and didn’t lash out at my mom. After 2 hours of trying to access her shows online and hook up my digital TV receiver that came with my internet, with another service provider, I was not a happy camper.
It was at that time that I realized I could either finish doing what I could to help my mom, or I could complain and blame. It was my choice.
Loss of a few TV shows is NOTHING compared to the loss of a marriage, family, and security.
However, the principles for handling these situations are the same.
It’s never easy when life doesn’t turn out as we planned.
We do have a choice: will we complain, blame, be angry and grow bitter, or will we do what we need to do to handle the situation the best way we can, accept it, and move on?
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