The Upside To A Bad Experience
The past two weeks my life took a planned but bizarre detour through the world of the X Games here in Aspen. For me it wasn’t really a great time but there are enough positives from it to allow me to see the upside to a bad experience.
I spent 11 days, 9-10 hour days driving event workers and athletes all over the mountain to the different courses on a snowmobile. I wasn’t just at the X Games… I was IN the X Games at ground zero from beginning to end.
It was exhausting both mentally and physically. I would be at work by 6:15 in the morning and be driving a sled before the sun was even up. Rarely did we get breaks to go in and warm up and the last two days there wasn’t even a chance to grab lunch. The last five days were the worse and forced me into complete survival mode, doing whatever I could to get by that week in terms of self-care and making sure I rested between shifts.
To make matters worse… I had a cold the entire second week!
I think you get the picture… a rough two weeks in which I had to balance my business… my running, and this gig, while all the time having a nasty cold; Definitely a bad experience.
The Upside To A Bad Experience
Being a life coach, part of what I do is to help clients to see the positives when all they see are negatives in a given situation. I help them to see the upside to a bad situation, and even help them to discover the opportunities hiding within that they might not see for themselves.
My X Games experience turned the tables on me in the sense that what I usually do for my clients and help them with…. Well it was my time to help myself. It became my job in order just to survive the ordeal to find the upside to a bad experience…
And I did…
I tried something new and though I had been warned off by some well-meaning friends who had “been there and done that” themselves, I wanted to see for myself. Now I know. The one upside that I experienced is that I now know that I do not want to this ever again. It was a once and done occurrence for me. Glad I did it… sure… but I will not do it again.
Another upside to a bad experience that I have discovered is that this X Games adventure will be, at least quite for some time, a referenceable experience for me. What I mean by that is that I will be referencing this experience whenever anything else unpleasant is happening and I will be able to say, “at least I am not driving a sled in the X Games!” It was an experience that truly gives me some perspective on life.
Lastly… and for me this is the most important take-away from the past two weeks; It has motivated me, inspired me, lit a fire under me, and whatever else to work even harder to make “my thing,” my coaching business work and be a success. Because not only do I never want to do that again, I most certainly never EVER want to be in the position where I HAVE to do that again.
We always have the chance to take what happens in life and view it as a positive or negative. But sometimes even with the most optimistic of outlooks, you have to call it what it is… some things are just bad, no way to sugar coat it, and that’s okay. But even with the “bad things” there is always some good as a result, always. Even if it’s just the knowledge that you never want to that thing again, ever… even for a million bucks!
In the end I got to ride a snowmobile A LOT and at times it was fun… at times. I rode 450 miles up and down a mountain just in the past five days alone. It wasn’ t THAT bad but it was bad enough for me to have to look for the upside to a bad situation in order to make the situation work out, and some times… that is just what you have to do!
Andy Wooten M.A. Counseling – Certified Life Coach – Aspen, Colorado
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