Several years ago I met a man on my job that became somewhat of a mentor to me.
For the sake of today’s blog post we’ll refer to him as Mr. Washington.
Today I want to share with you a valuable lesson he shared with me while we worked together.
Since we at A Step Above Style value your time (and because you already know why you’re here) we’ll jump right in.
Let’s begin
Change The Way You Look At Things
One day at work Mr. Washington told me about a valuable lesson his mother, Mrs. Brenda, taught him when he was very young .
“Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at will change”.
Mrs. Brenda
At the time that this bit of wisdom was shared with me, Mr. Washington and I were working on a particularly complex and difficult work project. Below are a few of the things we faced:
- Conflicting personalities amongst the members of our work crew
- Many safety standards we had to remember as we went about our work
- Work deadlines
- Fatigue from working 13 days in a row before having one day off
This advice originating from his mother came at a much needed time for me.
Situations, people, and things on the job were draining me and causing me to feel very unhappy at times.
How This Saying Helped Me
When I applied the advice given to me, it affected me in the following ways:
- Conflicting personalities on the job became a opportunity to learn more about the types of people I work with and how each person had their own strengths
- Many safety standards to remember was my chance to learn about how I can do my job safely. Fast forward a few years and now my career completely revolves around safety. Now I teach others about it.
- Work deadlines taught me that rather than agreeing to things that were impossible to finish in too short an amount of time, I should be more honest with my superiors about what I could acheive. Also how important time management was to reaching any goal.
- Fatigue from a 13/1 schedule taught me the value of a proper nights rest and meal planning. My time was very limited by the time I got off work, so I had to make the most of it.
The Point Of This Saying
Find the good in everything you encounter.
Yes, even negative situations can bring about something positive in your personal growth and development.
With that said you should make the choice to grow from everything that comes your way in life.
I’ll share with you one of my favorite examples. It is with the “issue” of always being busy because others are asking you to do so much.
This is how you apply the skill we are discussing today:
Rather than be upset that you are so busy, be happy about the fact that you are so trusted by others to get the job done. They believe you know what you are doing on any given job task, assignment , etc. and so they ask for your help.
So when you choose to make the best out of everything, it’s hard for situations to bring you down.
“Never allow someone or something to ruin your day. That is too much power for a person or a situation to handle. You remain in control by maintaining a positive outlook in all things”.
ASAS Words of Wisdom
Conclusion
I’ll tell you one last story in conclusion of today’s post.
Recently I had my vehicle towed.
The place that I live gave specific instructions about parking passes, the tow away zone, etc.
Long story short, my vehicle got towed because I didn’t have the parking pass. I had continually procrastinated and put this off, and now has to pay to get my vehicle out of the tow yard.
Was I mad? No. Was I disappointed? Yes.
Nevertheless I made the choice to look at this as a $300 lesson in “following the rules”. ($300 is how much it cost to get my vehicle back) .
Rather than be mad, and my anger ruin my day, I chose to change the way I looked at things. This decision turned a negative situation into a positive one.
I sincerely hope this lesson will be as valuable to you as it has been to me through the years.
Until next time, y’all have a good one.
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