The following continues my wife’s thoughts about lessons learned while we have been doing home repairs and facelifts.
It was a crazy work week filled with the everyday hustle and bustle of running a business. I usually work three thirteen-hour days, so I have more flexibility on Thursday and Friday. The crazy week at work led to a crazy few days at home. The kitchen fell apart. 
Remember the kitchen project I was so eager to have completed? Earlier in the week, we learned our oven stopped working. It was a bummer, but we figured we were still doing well if that was the worst. Thursday rolled around, and I put the finishing touches on the kitchen, which included hanging some shelves and putting contact paper on the countertop. The contact paper wasn’t going well. We had some backsplash issues, too. So Joe glued the backsplash to the wall. I watched him pull the fallen backsplash from behind the counter. I walked into the other room and heard him say, “It all fell apart.” I sat still and listened. In one second, my mind thought of many possibilities. “What could’ve fallen apart?” I heard Joe say to my daughter, “The cabinet broke!” I went quickly into the kitchen to see the cabinet that held three kitchen drawers in complete shambles. We just stood in shock. How did this happen? We had freshly painted the cabinet and put new hardware on it just days before. It looked beautiful, but now it’s broken.
Does this sound like a familiar story to you? Suddenly, it seems like things are going well, but in reality, the hits keep coming. You feel you can’t catch a break. Anxiety and fear grip your heart. You begin to live in fear, and self-loathing takes a front-row seat in your mind.
You ask yourself, “Why do my neighbor Jim and my friend Sue have it so easy?” Why is it me that keeps getting blow after blow?
What if I told you that Jim and Sue have the same problems you do? What if I told you the hits keep happening to them as well? Would you believe me?
The difference between you and your neighbor and friend is how you view your situation. Your view of what happens to you determines your overall life satisfaction.
When I saw the kitchen cabinet shattered, Joe and I saw an opportunity to create more functional space. We went to Home Depot, bought a new cabinet, and started over.
Sometimes, it’s ok to start over. Sometimes things happen for a reason. I sometimes think people believe life is supposed to be easy. It’s difficult. It’s hard, but hard can be good if we choose to look at the hard through a lens other than self-loathing:
We might see beauty in our pain.
We might learn something.
We might accomplish something we
never thought we could do it.
The hard part might push you to be a better you.
Embrace the hard.
Find joy in your journey.
No matter how hard it gets, remember it’s not what happens to you that shapes your response. It is your belief about what happens to you.
You will endure hard every day. Embrace it. Learn from it and grow into a better you. You won’t regret it.
It’s all about your attitude.
