It seems we live for the challenge. As if my visual problems and my husband’s health problems are not enough, we just seem to ATTRACT things.
Man vs Wild, with Wild being the Maggie Monster, continues. She clears a 4’ fence (in a leap with a little boost at the end, hind feet in the chain link), so we put up a six-foot fence. She goes under a fence; we anchor it. She has now started crawling under the deck to get out. The girl is a wonder. It would not be so bad, but she gets herself into the pool, comes out and uses the furniture as her towel!
In addition to the Maggie Monster games, I have been dealing with the business office at school – can you spell SNAFU? – and trying to get fingerprinted (or not) for the mini, mini continuing education class I am teaching in the fall. Everything turns into an event!
So, life is just one, big challenge. When we don’t have any, we seem to attract them. Probably the way we live our lives. We wanted the puppygirls. I want to teach my mini, mini course on AMD.
There are essentially two ways to look at challenges. Either you consider it all an incredible pain in the tush or…game on!
The Huffington Post wrote about ten reasons to love the obstacles that show up in life. Quoting Ryan Holliday, the Huffington article suggests we succeed not in spite of obstacles but because of them.
Obstacles show us who we are, for example. Have you made a decision on how you will handle the obstacle of vision loss? What do you think about that? Can you, as who you are, live with that decision? Maybe it is not “you” at all.
Obstacles show us what we need to do next. What do we need to work on? We continue working on keeping the puppygirls enclosed and safe. Maybe you need to work on finding transportation or finding a low vision specialist to teach you skills. What do you need to do to get over the hurdle?
Holliday says obstacles make us tough. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
I found this one intriguing. Number 8 on the list is “obstacles allow us to change our lives for the better” and the first line in it says“sometimes they are an excuse for changing our lives”.
Hate your old job? Maybe this is an opportunity to get training for a new one. Very often Blindness and Visual Services can help you switch careers. What do you REALLY want to be when you grow up? If it is reasonable for a VIP, there is a chance you can do it still.
And then there is the ever famous “I want to see the world before I go blind!”. Sounds like a great excuse for jetting off to me!
Those are just a few of the 10 reasons they listed. Check out the article for the rest. Hope this little “reframe” of obstacles into challenges was helpful!
PS The puppygirls have now pushed out the sliding side of the air conditioner and gone out the window! Maggie went next door and forced her way under the fence of the neighbor’s dog yard. This is the first time I have ever had a dog that broke IN somewhere!
Game on!??
Written July 1st, 2018