Adversity and Misfortune - Catalysts for Change

In these tough economic times it is important to remember that throughout life you will come face to face with adversity and misfortune. You cannot completely protect yourself and your loved ones from things like suffering. They come in their own time, many times when you feel the least prepared to cope with misfortune.

When we are in our "zone" and all appears to be going well for us in life - life can at times appear to be "controlled" "... in a rhythm" and we feel like we are moving from one ritual or familiar experience to the next. Then adversity comes swooping in and almost like a tragedy shatters or routines and those things we "take for granted". We might at times feel like we are now living in side an echo chamber - reflecting back our screams of anguish. Things that seemed so important now seem to have disappeared from our "importance meter". Things we looked at as concerns before now become irrelevant and even petty.

It is not what happens to us that - it is how we respond to what happens to us that determines the quality of our lives.

When we finally come out of the fog of misfortune and shed off the cloak of adversity as we ultimately will, we will have experienced a transformation!

These are important things for us to remember as we begin to enter the early stages of the America's Second Great Depression. Although anybody reading this did not personally live through the the first US Depression that began in 1929, we must be prepared and resilient, this coming depression could last 2 years, 4 years, 8 years even longer. How we prepare and how we respond will determine the quality of our life and our ability to take advantage of the enormous opportunities certain to come our way in the recovery. More wealth was created and acquired at the end of the last depression than at any time in our history, including during the internet and housing growth markets.

How you respond to the adversity, misfortune and tragedy of America's Second Great Depression will in large part be determined by your responses to those events earlier in your life and your ability to learn and implement change. Your response to suffering is one true measure of your personal strength. I for one have embraced my tragedies as a source of learning and growth. Our daily behaviors involve "looking for and being grateful for the silver linings". A personal tragedy in my life had me take a route to liquidate a large portion of a stock portfolio in 2007. We acknowledge daily the gift we received there as we liquidated literally at the top of the market and have recently begun to replace the holdings for roughly 30% of our liquidation prices. The tragedy was horrible, the silver lining was there to be grateful for.

As human beings one of our innate abilities is we are a surprisingly resilient organism. We have a built-in drive towards health and growth not towards sickness. the question is not one if you will heal and grow, but rather how and when. Isn't it nice those are choices you have control over. Grief, pain, suffering have their own duration, they will pass and you have the wonderful power to shape the new being you will become.

We must not fear adversity and misfortune, but recognize they make you part of the human family. They allow you to immerse your spirit in the human experience.