Being Positive During Blizzard Conditions

If you ever experience a blizzard then you know there are two options in dealing with the conditions: 1) accept the conditions and shovel the snow over and over again. 2) Sit in a heated house and just watch the snow build, crying and whining when you can’t get out of your house.

We all get blizzard conditions during our life. It’s when we get an extra load of “to-do” on top of the daily maintenance stuff. We can’t change the fact that life is sometimes harder, but we can control how we deal with it.

Recently a friend of mine gave birth to her second child. She has her mother, husband, and mother-in-law all there to help her in the first few weeks. On a recent conversation with her, in her tired voice she just kept mentioning how tired everyone is. The round the clock feeding schedule was broken down into teams, playing havoc with everyone’s energy level.

My friend made sure to express her gratitude for being lucky enough to have family around to help. She understands that when I gave birth to my only offspring, my situation was drastically different. I was lucky to give birth million miles away from family and friends, in a foreign country, all alone. During the c-section birth and for 6 weeks afterwards, I was the only source of care for myself and my child. I understand how tiresome feeding every 2 hours can be.

The difference in scenarios doesn’t make me “stronger” person. I know if she was in the same position, her internal instinct of survival would kick in. It’s inside every one of us. When there is no one else to rely on, we can accept life’s responsibility and conquer. It’s the choice between keeping positive or letting life drag you down.

There are times in life that I wish I had someone else to split duties with, just like an entrepreneur starting off. Most entrepreneurs aren’t lucky enough to have a sales person on staff to do the dreadful cold-calling, or accountant to figure out the cryptic IRS statements. All successful entrepreneurs just do the extra duties in stride. They do so because they look at the big picture. It doesn’t matter who does the billing, it has to be done. Just do it.

As companies and humans, evolve to encompass more than one person in our circle of life, do we start to become over reliant on others? How often do we focus on what other’s aren’t accomplishing to help us, rather then taking ownership of our lives and just doing it. In the bitter cold of winter, I wish I had someone to fill my gas tank for me. I dread standing out on the cold air pumping gas. The reality is, I have yet to train my dog on how to drive or pump gas. Until I can, it’s either I accept it as something I just have to do (regardless of how cold or hot it is) or I have no transportation.

Surely if I had someone else to rely on, I would want them to take care of it for me. At what point does my life responsibilities become the responsibilities of others? Really, never. Simply because you have someone else to lean on, doesn’t make it their responsibility to rise to the occasion every time. It’s ok to stand on your own and keep positive. In reality, the little blizzards of our lives are easily conquerable - you just have to keep positive.