This Too Shall Pass

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
– George Eliot, author

In Issue #157

This Too Shall Pass
by Krista Jones

I’m not one for dwelling on negatives, but I will admit that the past week was tougher than most.

First, my computer crashed. Then, my dog came down with a nasty bug that swept through the doggie community in my area. And on Friday night, I nearly got caught in a tornado.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but aside from the $2,000 I had to shell out for a new laptop and printer, the computer crash was the least troublesome of the three things that went wrong.

Probably because my dog’s illness lasted for so long—five days. Not only was it hard seeing her miserable and weak, but I also got very little sleep as I cared for her through each night.

Although the situations with the computer and my dog both knocked me off balance, I handled each one about as well as could be expected. But the tornado was a different story…

My 14-year-old niece and I had gone to the airport (about 40 minutes from my house) to pick up my nephew who was flying back to college after spring break. There was a 40-minute delay in getting his bag, so we were all a little frustrated when we finally left the terminal.

Just as we pulled out of the parking lot, a friend called to say a tornado had been spotted several miles north of where I was and it was heading southeast.

I was heading north and then east, but based on the tornado’s location, I figured I had time to outrun it.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. Weather cells and air masses shifted. And, unbeknownst to me, we were headed right into the center of the trouble.

As you can imagine, the drive home was quite an adventure. Moments after we turned onto the freeway heading east, the street lights went out. And minutes later, the rain came in blinding sheets, concealing the golf ball sized hail that came with it.

Okay, now I was concerned. Concerned that I was responsible for two kids’ lives. Concerned that I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of the car. And concerned that the hail would break the windshield before I could find cover.

I eased the car forward until we reached an exit. I got off the freeway and called my friend to see what was going on. She said, “As long as you’re not on Snapfinger Road, you’re probably okay. That’s where three nasty weather cells are converging right now.”

Well, guess what road we were on? Yep, Snapfinger.

Needless to say, there was some serious drama after that. But eventually we made it home safely—unaware of the damage the twister had left behind in downtown Atlanta.

As I fell off to sleep Friday night, I remembered something a friend had said to me the previous day: Nothing in life stays the same; it’s a cycle of “good” and “bad” events.

Of course, she’s right. And if you’re also going through a rough patch or are faced with a challenge, I hope it helps to remind yourself that it won’t last.

Maybe, instead of resisting the situation, you need to step back for a bit and just accept it. And then when the time is right, you can move forward again. That’s exactly what I did when my computer crashed (I’ll tell you more about that in the tip below). Unfortunately, it’s not what I did when I learned about the tornado.

Since we were already 40 minutes late, I resisted the idea of getting home any later. So I tried to outrun the storm, but it cut me off. If I had just resigned myself to the fact that a dangerous storm was in the area and then found a safe place to wait it out, the storm would have passed over and the evening would have been a lot less stressful.

No matter what your challenge is right now, it will pass too. And when it does I look forward to meeting you on the other side.

Resource Referral: Which Way Do You Lean?

Some people I talk to don’t like the idea of writing sales copy for consumers, but they are interested in writing to businesses. If business-to-business writing sounds interesting to you, make sure you learn how to do it from an expert—someone who doesn’t just talk about it, but actually does it for a living.

One person who is definitely qualified to guide you in this market is Steve Slaunwhite. Steve has been writing business-to-business copy for more than 10 years, and he consistently earns well over $100,000 per year doing it. In fact, he is so in-demand that one Fortune 100 company pays him a five-figure annual retainer just to reserve his availability for their copy assignments.

Steve wrote AWAI’s course, Secrets of Writing for the Business-to-Business Market, and packed it with dozens of his secrets for making it big in this market. He even explains how to write copy for all three Business-to-Business markets: Fortune 500 companies, midsize companies and small businesses.

If you’re interested in this market, get a copy of the program, look it over, and see if it’s for you. If decide it’s not—or you don’t think the program can help you—send the program back within 30 days. No harm, no foul.

Quick Life Tip: What You Resist Persists

Reading A New Earth has helped me tremendously in accepting all the crazy things that happen in life. Never was that more apparent than when my computer crashed.

When the screen went blank while I was in the middle of writing a promotion, I didn’t scream or pound my fist. I didn’t get frustrated. In fact, I didn’t feel upset in any way. I just sat still for a about five minutes and thought through my options. And then I came up with a plan that would get me back to work as quickly as possible.

I was totally amazed at how calm I was throughout the process. And one thing’s for sure: It was a lot more effective than getting all bent out of shape about it.

Try this approach the next time you find yourself in a tough spot. Just accept the situation and then take some time to investigate it. You might come up with an action you can take to improve or remove the situation. Then again, you might not. But even if it’s beyond your control and you can’t do anything to change or improve it, accepting it will keep you from making yourself miserable.