"Life is a long lesson in humility."
- James M. Barrie
Life can be very humbling at times. Just when we think things are going great, life will remind us of how we can be at the mercy of variables beyond our control. Case in point: I had today's blog all ready to go and when I went to add a title, an error popped up on my screen and I lost the entire post. It usually autosaves when that error pops up, and I may lose the last line or two. Not today. Lost the entire post. Of course it was all about not allowing setbacks to defeat us. How fitting.
I was frustrated at first. Like, WTF? This never happens. It always autosaves. But I didn't have time to complain or throw myself a pity party for one. I had a deadline to make. Instead of doing my best to remember everything I had typed up between last night and this morning, I decided to start fresh. I saw the quote above about humility and could only smile at how fitting it was regarding my setback. It helped me to realize how far I have come regarding my ability to be humble when things are not going my way. It's just a blog post.
Photo by Arifur Rahman Tushar on Pexels
The old me would have said, "Screw it, I just won't post today. I'm not going to struggle remembering what I wrote." The new me was like, "OK, the Universe just ironically dealt me a setback regarding my blog post on setbacks. How am I going to respond to this?" So I found my new quote and started typing away. Choosing how to respond is very freeing. We get to choose whether it's a positive or negative response, or somewhere in between. This was a small setback for me, but it reminded me how to remain calm when life deals us a blow.
Keeping our composure when things aren't going our way can be challenging. It can feel contradictory. We may feel the need to lash out or go sulk in the corner, but that won't help solve our problem. The best response is to manage the situation to still achieve the desired outcome or come up with an alternative solution. Life hands us all lemons at times. We can choose to throw them in defiance or make some lemonade. When we choose the latter, we can take a few sips and realize how far we have come. It can be both rewarding and humbling at the same time.
More Wellness!
Psychology Today: What Is Humility? The Power of Humility With 5 Practical Exercises
Our Everyday Life: What Are the Benefits of Being Humble?
Medium: 11 Reasons To Be More Humble
