The Gift of Adversity

Today often looks and feels a lot like yesterday. It's easy to assume that tomorrow will look and feel very much the same. This is the seductive delusion woven by the status quo. Every day is more-or-less "another one of those."

And then something happens. Things go sideways. The world gets turned upside down. Every day is a topsy turvy carnival ride. Suddenly everything is uncertain.

"Adapt yourself to the circumstances in which your lot has cast you; and love these people among whom your lot has fallen, but love them in all sincerity." - Marcus Aurelius

Our instinctual response to unpredictability and the unknown is anxiousness. Adversity causes the evolutionary imperative for "fight or flight" to kick in. You find yourself lashing out or hiding under the covers.

But every situation, no matter how dire, presents as many opportunities as it does challenges. In fact, problems and misfortune are often a great gift. They remind us that nothing is ever really certain and  we possess everything we need to forge meaning and develop ourselves in even the most difficult circumstances.

Since the dawn of time, when life presents challenges we've gathered to employ our ability to reason to create and execute a plan to overcome obstacles. Whether the challenge is surviving today to try again tomorrow or deciding which brand of jam to serve at tea, the best way forward is to congregate, consider, and compass a way through.

The gift of adversity is it reminds us of what it really means to be human and how little we need to be truly happy.

What challenging circumstance do you face today? Who can you convene? What better way can you conceive? How will you create the possibility you wish to step into?

The only way out of any challenge is moving through it together.

Onward.

Scott Perry - Difference Maker at Creative on Purpose.

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