Finding the Good in All Life Situations

A somewhat cliche, but nevertheless, powerful story that illustrates finding the good in any life situation is the story of the two shoe salesmen. The story goes something like this…

Two shoe salesmen travel to a developing country to see if there’s a market for selling shoes. One salesman returns to the states and says, “Well, that was a waste of time. Nobody there wears shoes.”

The second salesman returns from the same area, but with a different report. He says, “that area is a gold mine. No one there is wearing shoes yet!”

What one salesman saw as a void, the other saw as an opportunity.

If you can train your brain to see the opportunity in all situations, even the stressful ones, stress – and life – becomes a positive challenge. Honestly, I am yet to find any circumstance where looking at stress as a “negative threat” and focusing on the void would ever work better for me then embracing it as a “positive challenge” and seeking the opportunity.