When it seems that the world is working against us, that we can never get ahead and adversity after adversity presents itself at our door, it is easy to throw up our hands and give in to the feelings of defeat and despair. We sit around and mope and tell ourselves that we are “a victim of circumstance,” it’s out of our control, there’s nothing that we can do. Because isn’t it so much easier to place the blame on everyone and everything except ourselves?

We live in a society that promotes non-responsibility. If you ever watch daytime TV, the commercial ads are targeted towards the uneducated, unemployed, down on their luck or just plain lazy audience. Ambulance chasing lawyers inform us on how easy it is to sue for any self-perceived wrong “done” to us, pharmaceutical ads advise us that we should never feel pain or sadness or helplessness, but if we do they have just the right drug for us. Reality television shows glamorize inappropriate behavior, it’s cool and funny to be “in-your-face” rude, selfish and foul because it’s “all about me, why should I care about what anyone else thinks or feels, it’s their problem, not mine.”

Fortunately, for most people when they have reached the bottom of despair, this is the time when they start to really look within and reflect on their beliefs and faith. When we believe that we have “hit bottom” and cannot travel any deeper into despair, our minds and our emotions force us to open new doors and be creative in our problem solving thought processes. Our outlook and expectations on life is now completely different than our outlook and expectations were when everything was going well. It forces us to examine and determine what are the most essential qualities or parts of our life that we need to maintain in order to survive. Once we have our list it can become the foundation on which to rebuild or start a new. For when each adversity strikes, we need to embrace it as an opportunity to learn from it and allow what we have learned to transform us from within. Let it open up a whole new world of possibilities and goals.

One book that comes to mind that addressing adversity and the power that is contained within each of us when facing it is The Traveller’s Gift by Andy Andrews. This was one of the first self-improvement books I read when starting my home business. By implementing the 7 decisions defined in this great book, in less than six months I went from earning less the $100K per year in my life sucking job to earning more than that in a single month working from home.