I had a change management situation earlier in my career. I was younger, significantly less experienced and not particularly proud of the way I handled it. I didn't maximize the situation for the potential that it offered me, instead I let my fear and resistance to change overtake the process. Interestingly, I find myself here again. Hello, old friend. However, this time I will approach it differently. I am a student of life and although lessons sometimes feel too frequent, I am learning so much. I truly can look at problems I have encountered as gifts which got me to exactly where I stand today.
In life we think the that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem. The real truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together for a time, then they fall back apart. Then they come together and fall apart again. It’s just like that.
Personal discovery and growth come from letting there be room for all this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
Suffering comes from wishing things were different. Misery is self-inflicted, when we are expecting the “idea” to overcome the “actual,” or needing things (or people, or places) to be different for us so we can then be happy.
Let the hard things in life break you. Let them effect you. Let them change you. Let those hard moments inform you. Let this pain be your teacher. The experiences of your life are trying to tell you something about yourself. Don’t cop out on that. Don’t run away and hid under your covers. Lean into it.
What is the lesson in the wind? What is the storm trying to tell you? What will you learn if you face it with courage? With full honesty and – lean into it. Pema Chodron
or more succinctly:
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” - C.S. Lewis
