Penny Power Ponders the richness of adversity

This week I had a number of calls with Business Owners that allowed me to be very grateful for the adversity I have experienced in life and business. So this week's ponderings are about how we feel about adversity, how we manage it mentally and how great it is.

I once asked a good friend, "if there is a God, why does he put us through so much if he loves us?”. Her reply was amazing, “Because the richness of our learning enables us to help others”.

I like this, in fact, when we are seeking new members for our community of Business Experts, we always seek those that are open about their challenges and their past. We know that creating an honest place where people have been enriched by the human journey will create kindness between one another.

I have never shied away from the pain and adversity that we have faced. Financial and within our family. My book, Business is Personal, is a very open sharing of my own failings and learnings. My belief is that business is an expertise in its own right, apart from the niche expertise we all have. We need to accept that business is not easy to learn and we need others around us to smooth the journey through their own wisdom gained from their adversity.

I also believe that life is like panning for gold. We stand over the river of life each day, sieving out the things that are not right for us. Life is a process of elimination, until on some days we discover the gold, we hold onto it and repeat the actions that helped us find it. Equally, when we are forced through outside controls to sieve out some dirt that we thought was gold (the fools gold), we need to be grateful that it showed itself to us and let that dirt go.

Adversity enriches us as humans, not only for our own journey of life, but also the journey for those we choose to love and support around us. We should never feel anger or shame, but we can feel disappointment and sadness and, in my experience, it is from letting things go that we find it easier to find the gold. The more we sieve out, the more the gold can shine.

This week, be proud of all those moments that made you stronger, not tougher. Resilience is a wonderful human asset, somehow the more challenges we have, the greater our resilience muscle. Never allow those tough moments make you tough, turn them into love and kindness and ways to help others, be strong for others but never smug. No one likes to share their pain with those that are smug about their life. Connecting with others at a heart level requires us all to be real. In an AI world, an emotionally disconnected world, your heart in business is your greatest asset.

Finally, I can attest to the fact that everyone goes through adversity, and when we all admit that, what a beautiful word we create. A world of kindness and empathy, a world where we can grow together.

Have a super week, and thank you for all the amazing comments I receive about my Ponderings, they keep me believing that the world is seeking ‘a human touch’.

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