Yes, you read that correctly. I wrote OMMS not OM. "What is OMMS?" you then ask.
Obstacles are my friend!
Read that and remember it. It's so important and it's the way great people make it through life. Notice I wrote "great" people and not "successful". This is because I believe if you're great, you are successful but the rest of the world might not classify you as successful but who cares. As I've written so many times before - success is something YOU define for yourself. If you go by other peoples' definition you may never reach that point.
But as usual i digress. Back to obstacles. Adversity or obstacles (to me they are interchangeable) are a part of life. But they are also subject to perception. What's a gigantic block for you might not even be in the way of someone else. It's all based on your experience and how you have been taught (or have learned) how to handle things that may be in your way. A problem solver or a person with a growth mindset (check out Carol Dweck's book called "Mindset" - it's an eye opener) just sees something else that excites them. "oh boy, i get to figure out another solution" whereas someone with a fixed mindset and perhaps a traumatic childhood looks at the same thing and cries out "oh God, why me. I can't handle another thing standing in my way to success. Why does this always have to happen? I am just going to turn around and go home. I can't deal with this."
Which would you rather be? I am learning to change my mindset to a growth mindset rather than the fixed one I've grown up with. That serves me no purpose now and probably never did but that was what i had at the time.
If you look at an obstacle and say "wow, what can i learn from this?" you'll be so much better suited to deal with what's coming down the road. This is a primary theme of my book because I learned so much about obstacles at Vol State last year. It's also why i took so long to do a "race report" about ATY. I had several obstacles (some were self created) and I had to take time to process them. My fixed mindset initially just said "well, that sucked. you didn't do very good. oh, well, there's always next year. but don't' think you're going to do Vol State any better because you just proved you can't do anything well."
Over the days after the race, i dusted off my new growth mindset and looked at the race with a different attire. Then i saw "ok, so it didn't go as well as you wanted. You didn't fail. You learned. But that is only helpful if you sit down and think about what you learned and how it will help you in the future and what you need to concentrate more on." And then you saw my "rule of 3s report". I had a totally different perspective by then. So, in the long run (no pun intended) I learned more from this "failure" than i would have had I reached either goal A or goal B.
One more thing before i close. I am living proof and have told you all a thousand times - everything always works out for me. Any obstacle that has stood in my way, has led me down a path to greater happiness and "success" than i had ever imagined. The most recent big adversity was the post shingles nerve pain. Had I not had that then a) my underlying kidney disease would not have been discovered until it was too late and b) i would have never found these concepts and practice around the cause and treatment of chronic pain and i believe that spreading the word and helping people with that is much more valuable than just cruising along. It's not to say that was an enjoyable time because it was horrible but what happened because of it was what was really pretty good.
Try to make OMMS your mantra and crave improving your emotional resilience!
