It’s not nice, but it is a fact of life, a certainty. Things go wrong, events conspire against you, milk gets spilt, shit happens.
Maybe you can mitigate it, but you certainly can’t avoid it. It will get you in the end.
How are you going to deal with it?
Option A: Cry
- Play the ostrich and stick your head in the sand
- Run around like your hair is on fire
- Spend hours chanting “Why me? Why me?”
- Look after yourself, pull up the ladder
- Hold a long inquest into the reasons for the “shit”
- Find somebody to blame
- Then sack them
Option B: Clean it Up
- Accept that “shit” is inevitable
- Take a longer term perspective, realise that life will go on
- Accept what can’t be changed and focus on what can
- Believe in your own capabilities
- Modify your goal, find a different purpose
- Take practical steps to change the situation
- Find somebody to help you
- Help others around you
- Take time to look after the other parts of your life
There is of course a right answer, and it isn’t option A. But if a bit of A helps you get to B quicker be my guest, though I’d recommend you stop when you get to the chanting, after that it is a little unhelpful.
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Image by Joel Montes
Hello James
May I suggest a third option? How about be with the shit rather than run from it or rush to clean it up? Yet be with the shit in a particular way: how did this shit occur? what was my contribution to bringing about this shit? had this type of shit occured before? what can I learn from this shit?
Maz
A very good idea Maz, though not one that immediately resonates with my “western” view of the world
James
Hi James,
Maz will like this, I think. When I attended a Landmark Education course one of the things that stuck with me was the idea that: Stuff happens and then there’s what we make it mean.
How we react and respond to stuff happening defines everything.
Adrian