The New Home of Inspiration!

I was watching the BBC’s MasterChef last night. They had a double elimination. I found the contrast in mindset between the two eliminatees very interesting.

The first one expressed his appreciation for everything he’d learned during his time in the competition. He spoke about how glad he was that he’d applied and how his experience had contributed to his development as a cook. Conversely, the 2nd was intent on beating himself up and focusing on his mistakes and, “if only he’d done things differently.”

It reminded me of an old verse I once heard:

“Two men were looking through the same bars. One looked down and saw the mud. The other looked up and awed at the stars.”

So how where will those two aspiring chefs go from here? Only time will tell. However, I’d bet that the first one will likely go from strength to strength and build upon his experiences in the MasterChef kitchen. Whereas the latter will only grow from the experience if he can get past beating himself up and focusing on the “shoulda’s, woulda’s and coulda’s”.

My point here is that whatever life throws at us, it is always good; even if it appears bad. How so? Well, even the most painful experience in life will strengthen us and teach us a valuable lesson that’ll serve us well for later challenges to come. An athlete will only win that gold medal if he learns to push past the pain he experiences during his training. You see, every challenge in life gives us an opportunity to flex our spiritual, emotional and/or mental muscles; strengthening them in the process.

But this will only happen if we keep that positive mindset and ask the question of every experience, however good, bad or ugly, “What is this teaching me?”, “What can I take from this experience that will make me stronger?”, “How can I use this experience to grow?”

Granted, sometimes  we won’t know how or what we can learn from an event or experience until some time later,  when we need to refer back to and/or draw upon the lesson we learned from that particular past event. But we must have faith that even if we cannot see the benefit of an experience at the time that it happens, it is happening for our good and it will benefit us at some point in our life’s journey.

It’s like Steve Jobs once said in a speech he gave to a class of University graduates, where he related three stories from his life and the lessons he learned from those experiences. He spoke about how when those respective events took place he was unable to “join the dots” in respect to how they would lead to greater achievements later in his life. He said:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forwards. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something; your gut, destiny, life, Karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart. Even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

So, whatever life throws at you, always have faith. Remember to “join the dots,” and trust that life is giving you what you need or will need later.

And finally, if you have benefited from this article or would like to add your your own gems of wisdom in relation to this subject then please do join in the conversation, by leaving your comments below.