Success Is Reserved For The Seekers

Welcome to the Second Mix Podcast where we reflect, revise, and remix our lives. My name is Matthew Bennett. At the end of this episode there’s going to be a call to action - a call to take some little step to remix your life – please join the Facebook group Ideas and Concepts Mastermind so we can continue the discussion. The link is in the description.

We are attacked by internal and external adversity any time we try to stretch and grow; any time we try to accomplish something worthwhile. 

Adversity is part of the whole process of trying to get through the cycles of complexity. And it is the one part that we don’t get to decide what happens. We can choose our ethos – mindset and philosophy. We get to select our own intention – goals, mission, and vision. We get to choose which skills we work on, and how hard we will work on them. We get to choose to take action – our own agency of our own lives. And we get to choose our elevation – how we reflect, revise, and remix our lives. 

But we don’t get to choose all the obstacles we will have to come across as we try to grow. They attack us at every angle, in every area, and we never really get to find out why it happened – we can always guess, but there’s never really a clear answer, except that stuff like this happens to everybody. That’s the only satisfactory answer – it just happens. 

I can ask why, just as I was getting to the end of the process of starting an online keyboard course, and struggling already to make things work out – why did the pandemic hit and change everything? Why did my father die? Why did my wife suffer an injury that hurt her body, her self-esteem? Why did my sister have a heart attack? And why did all of this happen within one month, the same month that I was just about to get up and running?

So is God, or the universe against me? Am I doing something wrong? I have learned over the past couple of years, that if I’m hitting obstacles, then I’m going in the right direction. I use them now, as I can, to understand where I need to get stronger and smarter. There is not a problem that does not contain a gift for you inside. I recommend looking for the gift instead of questioning why the problem is there. 

As you’ve maybe gathered from previous podcasts, I’m an open and hopeful guy.

For me to continue to talk about only adversity is difficult, the necessary evil to the process. C.S. Lewis, in writing the Screwtape Letters, said that it was an awful experience trying to see the world through the eyes of a demon all the time, but he thought it was necessary to teach what was inside him to teach. I thought he was just trying to sound maybe a little like a martyr, but I’m beginning to see what he meant, as I think and write about adversity – I’m looking for the ways that it affects and influences us. 

When we are through adversity, then I get to talk about the incredible and intense act of elevation – the place where we honestly reflect and use that reflection to grow and change for the better, and raise ourselves up, whether it’s a little step higher, or to an astronomical level. Either way, it’s a step up, and if we keep up the process of reflecting, and investing our past into our future, we will experience these steps over and over throughout our lives. 

In the end, it’s best to not always be asking, “Why is this happening to me,” but rather to choose our response and start working our way through it so we can meet our intentions. 

Why, why, why – doesn’t do a lot for us. Jim Rohn always said, “I wouldn’t take that class.”

The best advice I can give you here is to not feel sorry for yourself. That is just a waste of time. Complaining about the situation does not do anything to resolve the situation. 

There are two things that you can get out of adversity, and you get to choose:

First, you do get the right to complain, the right to get people to pity your situation That choice is available to you. You can say, “Look at the mess I’m in!” and your friends and family can say, “Poor you, yes, that’s quite a mess you are in.”

The second thing that adversity offers you is the chance to talk about it in a productive way. To a friend or family member, you can say, “Hey, will you take a look at this situation that I’m in? I don’t like it very much, and I’m trying to figure out a way around it. I’ve studied, I’ve done some work, I’ve read this book, and I’m still stuck. Can you offer any advice? Do you know anyone who could offer some advice?”

Take yourself outside of these two situations – who do you want to be around? The person complaining, or the person seeking an answer?

Thanks for listening! Has there been a time in your life that you were on the verge of success and adversity stopped you, or greatly slowed you down? I want to know about it for research purposes, and to get to know you better. Tell us your story at the Ideas and Concepts mastermind group on Facebook, the link is in the description. 

Once again, I am Matthew Bennett. You can grab this transcript on the blog at secondmix.net. Email at matt@secondmix.net, I respond to every one, and I want to talk to you! Please give me 5 stars on Apple or wherever else they let you do it, subscribe to see the latest episodes – and please leave me a review.  If you know anyone who will find this information helpful, please join my mission and tell them about the show – I do this to help people.  I’m gonna be here every Monday and Thursday until the ants stop marching one by one, hurrah. 

Take steps that will make your week incredible.  I’ll be back on Monday. This week continue reflecting, revising and remixing your life. I’ll see you soon!