Falling Forward

My 5 year-old was playing on a high chair and she fell backward. She came to tell me about her misadventure and after I ascertained that she was not hurt my initial thought was to tell her that she should be careful. She is a daredevil who is often climbing up and leaping off things. But I stopped myself and instead asked her what did she learn from this?

Unfortunate things happen all the time in life and we can focus backward and get hung up on the failure, disappointment, and blame, or look forward and ask ourselves what can we learn. This shift is empowering because it enables us to focus on something positive: the future and what we can do differently. It enables us to grow from hardship and mistakes rather than be diminished by them.

I imagine that this week will bring you unexpected disappointments and difficulties. When this happens, pause to notice your responses/feedback towards self and others. Then take a breath and gently turn and ask yourself, are these thoughts empowering/energy giving or energy draining/disempowering, what can I learn from what happened and what can I do differently in the future.