If you were to make a list of all the problems affecting your life and business chances are that list would be long.  Yet, given the state of world affairs, it would pale beside the ones we are all likely to face in the near future.

The stark reality is that most of what happens to us, or is likely to happen to us is out of our direct control. Sure, there are things we all can do to mitigate the negative outcomes, but they won’t eliminate all or even most of them.

As a result, most people live in a state of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).  They are either debilitated to the point of being paralyzed by it, or they engage in furious action thinking somehow they can thwart what they fear most.  While taking action is almost always better than doing nothing, there is still something missing here.  And that is, how we internalize and react to those things of which we have no control…

It’s not what happens to us that matters, it’s how we react to it.

W. Mitchell

The only thing we have control over really is how we react to something.  We have been given a gift that no other living being has, and that is the ability to choose.  We can choose how to react to outside circumstances in a way that empowers us rather than enslaves us, which effectively gives us a way to “bend” our own reality…

Is there something outside of you that’s troubling you? The distress you’re feeling is not from the thing itself. The distress you experience is from what you think of it and the way you feel about it. You can change that in an instant.

You can change what you fear into what you eagerly anticipate. You can change a burdensome problem into a magnificent opportunity.

Ralph Marston

So think about this the next time you see something as insurmountable or feel a sense of dread.  It just may be the best opportunity to come your way in a long, long time.