1. It’s not what happens to you but how you perceive it that determines how you will deal with the situation. (Photo credit: Duck Cousin)
2. Behind every difficult person you meet, there’s a lesson to be learned.
3. Instead of saying, “Why is this happening to me, you say, “What can I learn from this?”
4. Trust that everything in life is temporary and that going through different cycles is part of the process. Translation: Life will get better if you just have enough faith to get through this one.
5. We all have a divine blueprint for our lives - there is a such a thing as destiny and it’s up to us to discover what it is through our innermost passions.
6. The power of visualization cannot be ignored - it actually works! Don’t say it doesn’t work until you’ve tried it in earnest. Have you truly visualized yourself having or doing something?
7. God is your partner in life, let Him in and let him co-create things with you.
8. Without adversity or life’s challenges, we would never know what we are truly made of. It is through the toughest times we learn what we’re capable of doing; thereby becoming stronger and more confident in the process.
9. Everything you’ve experienced in life has been in preparation for what’s to come later in life. In fact, you are “life’s perpeptual trainee.”
10. Learn to trust and pay attention to your intuition — those “AHA” moments — they are often right on the nose.
11. There are no accidents. Everyone you meet, everything that has come your way was not an some random fluke.
12. Plan on making a fool of yourself and not take life or yourself so seriously - even God has a sense of humor. (i.e. Tell him your plans!)
13. Go crazy and send handwritten thank you notes to those who have helped you. Gratitude and positive energy attracts success, abundance and more of what you’re thankful for.
14. Be patient - you will be rewarded justly. Dont’t bother seeking revenge - it isn’t worth it.
15. Know that you are making a difference in small and large ways by just being who you are.
16. Refuse to compromise your integrity. People can see right through you and can detect whether you’re genuine or not. If you truly care about your customers, friends, family or business associates, they’ll stick with you through high and low because they know you care about them. In other words, they don’t care what you know until they know you care about them.
17. Fear is misdirected energy and must be redirected into faith.
18. Refuse to compare your progress with others. It will only serve to destroy your confidence. Everyone is at different stages in their lives and if you understand that you’re right where you’re supposed to be, then it won’t matter what others are doing. You are unique with special qualities, talents, skills and thought processes, etc. There is no one like you so how can you compare yourself to others?
19. If you haven’t failed enough in life, you haven’t risked much. Life without taking adventurous risks is downright dangerous.
20. Understand that you do matter - there is a purpose to your life - find out what it is and use your gifts to make a difference.
Food for thought: The list can go on but these are some of the impactful thoughts that have helped me through life’s toughest moments. Can you come up with a list of your own thoughts?
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12:26 pm on September 18th, 2007 1
Hello Stephen:
This is a fantastic list. Close to my heart and my personal experience. I would just add
“embrace every life experience asa learning experience” I got to your blog via the Personal Development List.
12:43 pm on September 18th, 2007 2
Galba:
Thanks so very much for taking the time to stop by and visit my blog. I’m not only glad you found the list to resonate with your own life’s experiences but that you enjoyed reading through it!
You must have read my mind because when your comment came to my attention, the first thing I wanted to know was how you found me. And there the answer was, in your comment! I’m glad you found me via the Personal Development list.
Have a great week!
Stephen
8:31 am on November 19th, 2007 3
Dear Stephen,
Always something and always so interesting that inspite of my morning busy schedule, I must go through your coloumn…Thank you once again and please keep up the good work…..becouse you may not know how much you words matter to people. Keep well…
8:55 am on November 19th, 2007 4
Themton:
I’m glad you take a few minutes out of your busy morning schedule to soak up the energy here at Adversity University. The fact that you took the time to leave a comment says a lot about how much my words matter to you.
T-h-a-n-k y-o-u for telling me this. I am thankful for it.
12:16 pm on January 31st, 2008 5
Stephen,
I’m hooked. Your blog is part of the positive outlooks that I try to implement daily. Ever since I have watched The Secret about a year ago, I’ve been changing the way I think about life and my purpose.
Love the list.
1:55 pm on January 31st, 2008 6
Lisa:
Yes, the Secret really made an impact in terms of clarifying everything I’ve been doing without realizing what it was called. When the Secret came out, I was like “Oh so that’s what it is!”
Glad you liked the list. I look at it from time to time to remind myself of the items on the list when things are a little crazy.
2:16 am on June 11th, 2008 7
[...] also does a great job on his blogger interviews. A couple worthwhile reads include his ways of looking at life and his discussion of the power of self-compassion. I’d love to see a conversation [...]
12:49 am on November 4th, 2008 8
I to agree that one should learn from unpleasant or unfortunate situations instead of thinking “why me?”. Thanks for the very thoughtful post.
12:05 am on January 10th, 2009 9
Stepehn, your 20 great concepts are sincerely inspiring. I offer ideas to consider expanding;
1.As you deal with situations, remind yourself the results do not determine what matters. You do.
2. As you realize lessons are available to be learned behind every person you meet, learn to see a reflection of yourself that you are not yet seeing.
3. As you are saying “What can I learn from this?,” remember you have been here before and already know what to do.
4. As you are building faith, consider you have no reason to hope for better because this is as good as it gets.
5. As you rediscover your passions, do nto forget to cherish all you are; capable, talented, loving, successful.
6. As you visualize your ideal life, do yourself a favor and look into the mirror. You are already there.
7. As you co-create with God, remind yourself that you are a divine being who underestimates your power.
8. As you grow to value adversity, stop trying to measure the nature of priceless wisdom.
9. As you realize you are always training for something, learn that humbleness can always expand.
10. As you grow to recognize “ah-ha moments,” evolve such that you never take any experience for granted.
11. As you move from believing in coincidence to perceiving synchrony, be generous and share the joy.
12. As you grow to take life less seriously, move to see you constantly transform your emotions in new ways to become more fully present ‘in the now.’
13. As you move to thank people more freely, do not forget to feel grateful for your own self-evolution.
14. As you grow more patient, remind yourself that unlimited opportunities to build patience come to those who know impatience.
15. As you realize you are making a difference with everything you do, learn to be less hard on yourself. You are more than enough, more than adequate already.
16. As you prioritize your own integrity, recognize this is a milestone as you move into the future with new hope, courage and enthusiasm.
17. NOt all fear is bad. It gauges what you do not want and helps you confront what really bothers you.
18. As you move to reduce your comparing and judging, you are facing sources of suffering that are not helping you and strengthening from within.
19. As you realize perceived failure is a great teacher, then you will be more likely to sense character-building strategy rather than demoralize or belittle these experiences in your own life.
20. As you recognize your life has purpose, you are gradually calming down, learning to think and realizing anything can happen based on how you think.
9:10 am on January 10th, 2009 10
@ Liara Covert:
Wow, you really outdid yourself here! What you did was to take my list and bring it to another level. Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to immerse your body, mind and spirit into this little exercise.
Life is indeed a matter of perception.
12:03 pm on January 17th, 2009 11
Stephen, you inspire people with your enthusiasm. What I did was simply listen to my impulse after reading your post.
I agree every individual is being prepared for experiences he or she has not foreseen. I recall an experience in my own life when I went to a lab to get some photos developed. On that particular day, the developing machines were “down” and a technie was there working on the systems. Being friendly as is my nature, I struck up a conversation with this guy. We moved on to speak about my work and it turned out his ex-wife had experience and interest in my industry. That woman has since become one of my contractors. She is a wonderful employee. I had never foreseen finding a new contractor when I went to that lab, and yet, looking back, my communication skills had been preparing me to uncover that opportunity which continues to be mutually-beneficial.
1:44 pm on January 17th, 2009 12
@ Liara Covert:
It’s pretty amazing how one’s enthusiasm can come through in the form of the written word. I’m so glad you sense that with my words. I’m thankful I have the gift of writing and that blogging has given me the means to share my love, enthusiasm and sense of wonder with people.
I love that story! I’ve had a few experiences like that - you show up for one thing but it actually leads you to something else, usually something you were looking for or something you needed but couldn’t find or even something you didn’t know you needed until that moment! I love it - this sort of thing never fails to awe me.
That’s what I love about the universe, Higher Forces - they never fail to put me in a state of wonder when something magical like that takes place.
Like I said before, I’ve been to your website but I’m not clear as of yet what your industry is? The title of your blog is “Dream Builders” so I imagine you’re a person who helps people build dreams? Tell me more.
And also tell me what kind of a contractor did this woman end up becoming? I’m fascinated with your story.