When Life Throws You a Curveball

No one goes through life unscathed.

Too often we look at other people, especially on social media, and think their life is perfect and problem-free.  It's not. I promise you. 

Every life has its share of curveballs.

Jobs are lost. Illness strikes. People die. Accidents happen. Economies crash. Extreme weather batters.

Sure, we should do our best – at work, for our health and helping others. But that is all we can do. Beyond that, fretting about what may happen is truly an exercise in futility.

This message isn’t intended to make you feel crummy; rather, it’s meant to liberate you, to free up the energy you expend on needless worrying about all that is out of your control.

Once we embrace this reality, we are free to enjoy the present.  Otherwise, we miss out on the glory of what and who is in front of us.

Therefore, the only challenge worth considering is knowing you have what it takes to handle whatever comes your way.

This exercise always works for my clients:

1.      Write down your worst fear, e.g., losing your job.

2.      Draw an arrow leading from this fear to the right.  This arrow means "then what?"

3.      Write down what your next step would be, e.g., look for another job.

4.      Draw another arrow and write the next step, e.g., update resume.

5.      Continue drawing arrows and writing down next steps until you've reached what you think is the end.

After 10, 20 or 30 steps, you’ll discover actions you would take and that you’ll endure.

Just doing this exercise will prove to you that you won't remain stuck, and your creativity and fortitude will get you through to the other side.

It may not be easy. It may be life-changing. Just know you’ll be fine.

Curveballs happen. Every baseball player knows this. It’s part of the game. And of life.