I am committed to being Father of the Year to my sons.
I love taking my boys to school every morning, but that doesn't mean that we don't have our tough days. My son couldn't find his instrument for the school presentation that was supposed to occur one morning which led to a lot of frustrations all around.
By the time we arrived at their school, he was close to tears that he wasn't prepared and then he asked if I could speak to his teacher for him.
This taught me a valuable lesson.
It hit me right on the spot about the importance of responsibility and handling things by focusing on the solution instead of the problem, but in the moment of being angry and frustrated I had to take a few deep breaths before teaching my son this lesson as well.
Just like my son can't put the blame on his younger brother for not taking responsibility for our own choices, so too we need to take responsibility and stop making up stories when we face frustrations.
The adversity was that he was MAKING UP A STORY and it wasn't until we confronted the reality that he was able to look for the solutions.
He talked to his teacher and she had an extra instrument for him, so he was able to play his music with the rest of his class that morning.
And guess what?
My son stated that it was a great day.
We may not always be able to foresee what kind of a day we're going to have, but the stories that we make up become a huge factor in learning to know how to take on the curve balls thrown our way every day.
The gift of the tragedy in adversity was that I was able to have a great conversation with my son and connected with him even more after having lunch with him that day, letting him know how much I love him.
Stop creating unnecessary stories. They are disempowering and will never serve you. So how do we avoid this? We focus on responsibility and make a shift towards what WILL serve us.
Challenge your stories, and you may discover the gifts that have been hidden once the stories were cleared away.
