A Crisis May Be a Blessing in Disguise
February 9th, 2007You have found yourself in a crisis situation and you really don’t know which way to turn, without being aware of it this crisis may be a blessing in disguise. Sometimes it’s kind of a shame when we have to get to the crisis point before we realize we have to make a drastic change in our behavior if we are to find our way back to happiness. It’s usually successfully navigating the roughest and most miserable periods in our life that provide the greatest platforms for personal growth. Unfortunately the easy life and the good times tend to leave us a little stagnant after a while and sometimes a serious predicament or obstacle might be just what the doctor ordered.
If everything was always ok, you were never in a jam, you always had enough money, there was always someone there for you and nothing ever went wrong, I wonder what you’d do if suddenly you found yourself in a severe crisis situation. What experiences would you draw on to get you out of the bind, how would you overcome this calamity? I guess it would be a pretty difficult position to be in but would it be a good thing or a bad thing? The way I see it, overcoming the crisis can only make you a stronger and more resilient person. It forces you into a corner and makes you make a decision you may previously have never needed to make.
A crisis is your best opportunity for personal growth, if you want to get through it you have to meet the challenge, you have no other choice. It’s the accumulation of challenging life experiences that teaches you the lessons that you draw on to guide you through your life. Together all these lessons you face up to and rise above allow you to live a happier and better quality of life. Sometimes you don’t realize how fortunate you are until you lose what you had and have to fight to get it back. On most occasions you simply don’t appreciate what is just handed to you but when you have to earn it through hard times and perseverance you respect it that much more.
Overcoming a crisis can be enlightening and often in hindsight the crisis doesn’t look so bad, in fact you may even come to look at the crisis as having been a great opportunity that you are very glad you went through to get to the better place you are at today. When I look back on the darker times in my life they don’t seem so dark but they certainly did at the time and it’s almost funny when I remember how I felt like I had no where to turn during some periods in my life and I believed I had found myself in a situation I would never get out of.
A crisis drives you to take action, it forces you to come up with new and creative ways to take the next steps in your life. It forces some people to ask for help when normally that is something they would never do and they learn that they are not alone. When you are at your lowest point you will usually find there is someone there to help you but you have to ask for it. This is often when you find out who are the people who really care about you. Fair weather friends quickly disappear when you’re in a real jam and sometimes this releases you from the grip of association with the wrong people. Asking for help also often provides you with new perspectives from other people’s point of view that you may have never considered before. These new perspectives may help you in making wiser and more informed choices.
When forced into a corner you will have to make a decision that often means taking you out of your comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory. Stepping into the unknown and having to make a decision without your usual security blanket is the faster route to developing your personality and character and leads you to make decisions with greater wisdom in the future. Wisdom is something you gather through time, it never comes all at once. I remember I was having a problem a while back and didn’t know what direction to take. I happened to visit my grandmother for lunch around this time and she could sense I wasn’t my usual self. I didn’t really want to talk to her about it but she managed to talk me into telling her what was bothering me and after I did I was blown away by her immediate and simple solution to what seemed to me to be an insurmountable problem. I asked her how she knew so clearly what direction I needed to take and she simply said “I’m 80 years old, that’s why I knew what you need to do”. I was so caught up in the details of my predicament that I simply couldn’t see the real problem. At 80 my grandmother had seen and been through so much more than me the solution for her was so simple but I just couldn’t see it even though it was staring me in the face.
Even when facing a dilemma that forces you to confront your problem, there is nothing to say you won’t make another poor decision that may lead you even more off the path than you already are but this is a part of life, dealing with making the wrong decisions and facing up to the consequences. So many times have I been in a jam and only ended up making things worse but eventually I came across the correct plan of attack and again another lesson is learned. Nobody knows if the decision they make is the right one until after they’ve made it. I’ve made some shocking decisions in my life but I only made them by drawing on what I knew at the time, there is not much else you can do. The good news is though, as you get more of the wrong decisions out of the way you end up paving the way to making better choices next time.
Making numerous poor decisions eventually leads people onto the path of personal development as they look for a better way to solve their problems without stress and worry. Over the years I have been interested in personal development my choices have become easier and less complicated to make and these days the decisions I make usually lead me to where I want to be. When I was younger I would worry about the same sort of issues that still arise today and overcomplicate the situation and stress out even more. Nowadays when I face a new challenge I don’t worry about it, I usually try and forget about it and by doing so my subconscious mind typically reveals the direction I need to take to overcome the challenge and therefore my life is so much more stress free.
A crisis can also have a way of putting your thoughts about money in their proper place. This works differently for different people, some may find that through a crisis they finally understand that money isn’t as important as they previously thought it was and others who have been wasteful with money may realize the opposite and this forces them to be more careful with the money they have. Also a health crisis can have an enormous effect on the way you look at the world and the people around you. It may cause you to take more care of your body and mind or allow you to see you that need to show other people more respect than you previously did.
So next time you find yourself in a crisis situation or if you are seemingly stuck in one right now, have a look around, look at all your options and look at where you want to be. Don’t get caught up in the details and I’m sure you’ll find in the long run it was a blessing in disguise.
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February 11th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Excellent article. It’s so true that a crisis shows us who our real friends are, and what things really matter. I lost almost all my belongings a few years ago, and it was the most enlightening experience of my life so far! It was a priceless lesson.
February 26th, 2007 at 7:51 am
[…] The post from yesterday’s blog carnival that hit home to me was from the Universe of Success A quote that stood out for me was this “It’s the accumulation of challenging life experiences that teaches you the lessons that you draw on to guide you through your life. Together all these lessons you face up to and rise above allow you to live a happier and better quality of life. Sometimes you don’t realize how fortunate you are until you lose what you had and have to fight to get it back.” […]
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I really like your attitude toward crisis. I know in my own life, working through a dark period is what got me interested in spirituality and growth, making me a much happier person than before my “crisis” began. Because of it my life now seems more like a process of discovery and learning instead of a daily struggle.
What I find difficult is to find the gift in the moment. It doesn’t even have to be a huge overwhelming issue, but even when I’m feeling a bit down I get caught in it and am not in the mood to look for an opportunity to learn from it. Much easier in hindsight…