Hindsight is a Beautiful Thing

Hand up those who have suffered adversities in the life.

Go on.

Stretch those babies up to the ceiling because I know for a fact that each one of us has met with some sort of difficulty at some point in our lives. It is a fact. None of us sails through life in a stiff tail wind that always turns perfectly in accordance to your wish to change direction. Sometimes we are buffeted by the side winds of work and family stress, sometimes the headwind of illness and injury or financial hardship tries to grind us down.

But guess what.

It’s all good.

In every hardship and difficulty there is a lesson to be learned. See, the tough times are what make us grow as people. My grandparents used to call them “life lessons”. Maybe it is the universe trying to drum something into our thick skulls. One thing is for certain, though. We will not be able to progress until we learn the lesson and grow out of it.

Here is a perfect example. I used to play a lot of ice hockey. I fancied my chances at playing professionally. Then my budding career was brought to a premature halt by a series of shoulder injuries. I was down in the dumps and went through a very dark patch in my life. But bit by bit things started to fall in place. I ended up becoming a sports chiropractor. I met my lovely wife and we now run our own clinic and enjoy raising our two gorgeous daughters. Maybe the universe had a different plan for me. One that didn’t involve me being a professional ice hockey player.

In hindsight the injuries proved to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Obviously, at the time I completely failed to see it that way, but after a while my life progressed far beyond my wildest dreams in terms of satisfaction and reward. I simply had to let go and to embrace, or to allow myself to follow the new direction that was set before me.
Next time life serves you lemons – make the lemonade, sell it, invest in lots of fruit, diversify the range of products, make a total killing and enjoy the ride!

In other words: when you are faced with adversity, take time to reflect and to understand WHY this happened. By making the necessary amendments to your life you will be able to move on and to progress. The lesson will become apparent and, who knows, it might end up being the best thing that ever happened to you.

Ride the storm, it won’t last forever - it may help speed you along to your destination if you stop fighting the process. The calm weather will come and you may realise, that indeed, the storm was exactly what you needed.