virgin islands scene

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
-- Booker T. Washington
 

 

Wednesday, May 1, 1996

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

One trait that almost all successful people have in common is the ability to turn negatives into positives. Disappointments and setbacks will come for everyone, even the super achievers. The difference with successful people is that they are able to benefit from everything that happens, positive or negative.

In fact, problems are a great source of opportunity. The way to change problems into opportunity is to adjust your attitude and your approach. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself and letting your problems get the best of you, take a proactive approach. Here are five steps that can turn problems into opportunities:

  1. Emotionally detach yourself from the problem.

  2. Don’t get caught up in assigning blame.

  3. Instead, determine why it happened and what can you do to keep it from happening again.

  4. Ask yourself who else might have this problem.

  5. If you knew this was going to happen again next month or next year, what would you do differently right now?

Don’t let your problems get the best of you. Instead, turn them into learning and growth experiences.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©1996 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.