Life Is Bigger Than That — JOHANNA GB JACKSON

Someone recently sent this to me:

You have $86,400 in your account and someone stole $10 from you. Would you be upset and throw all the $86,390 away in hope of getting back at the person who took the $10? Or move on and live? Right! Move on and live! See, we have 86,400 seconds in a day, so don’t let someone’s negative 10 seconds ruin the rest of your 86,390.

I loved it. Our greatest teachers in life are the ones that trigger us. When we are faced with a challenging friend, relative, client, peer, manager or person, it’s easy to play the role of the victim and let it dim our bright light. We can blame others as a way to protect ourselves. But when we do that we are actually giving away our power to influence our situations. The people that trigger you are giving you opportunities to learn, change and grow. They are also showing you the contrast. Contrast will always be there. Otherwise, how can we appreciate the opposite if we never experience the contrast? I recently learned through my own life experiences that we can see things through various lenses or filters. Your mood and attitude can help determine the outcome. Life can either be happening at you or for you. Why not try on some of these lenses:

THE “AS IS” LENS

What are the facts? What is the story I am telling myself about them? This helps you to almost be an observer if you will. It’s when you can stand outside of a situation that you can see things with more clarity.

THE OPPOSITE LENS

Looking through the lenses of the other person who triggered you. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. It’s just trying to see things from their perspective. We all have different realities. It’s when you can step into someone else’s shoes that you actually reclaim some power. It’s also widening your lens and allows for empathy.

THE BIGGER PICTURE LENS

We all have those people and situations where you are just feeling deflated, but when you can see beyond the present you can see how this is fitting into the bigger picture. You can ask yourself questions like “how is this helping me in the long run?”, “what is this teaching me or forcing me to do?”. Most of the times when you look back at tough situations they were there to propel forward action or forward thinking that is helping you in the long run.

I personally believe that life is happening for us. I may not always understand at that moment why something is happening, but I trust the process. We ultimately want happiness and I believe that people, places and situations are trying to get us there. We just have to be aware and allow things to unfold.