Life is WHAT?!

In his best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck begins Chapter One of the book with this sentence, “Life is difficult.” It is one of the great truths. Why is it then we are so surprised when we encounter difficulties in our life?! How often do we ask, “Why me?!” Or feel like: “I don’t deserve this!“ What does deserve have to do with it?!

No, the quicker we come to terms with this truth concerning the difficulty of life, the quicker we can stop wasting our energy in futilely trying to remain difficulty-free! Because it's not gonna happen. So what do we do?

Learn to live in health and wholeness in the midst of difficulties. Many of us live in the future to such an extent we miss the opportunities in the present. “If only ______ “(YOU fill in the blank) usually begins a sentence that frames our circumstances beyond anything we can do to make them be what we wish them to be. But what if we could live in the most toxic of situations and still thrive. Sound impossible? Not at all. It’s just a matter of understanding power.

It’s the lack of power which many times leads a person to throw up their hands in despair and begin living as a victim. Don’t misunderstand. One can truly BE a victim through no fault of their own but one chooses whether to live AS a victim.

Most self-improvement courses, be they personal or professional, will often start with helping you discover what you can change in your environment. What was it that Oprah uncovered with The Secret?! We can “picture” what we want? We just don’t imagine properly what our circumstances could be? Sorry, there is no short cut or magic solution to being in a difficult life! Did you know that the majority of the world’s populations live in physical circumstances they are unable to change?

This applies to where we find ourselves in our work environment. How many courses have you uncovered that speak about being in health and wholeness with a boss who is toxic – by ANY definition?! Not many. But unless you can learn to live in that “landscape” you will continue to remain hostage to the “If only…” of life.