As I work on finding opportunity in adversity, I ask myself the following questions:

• What can I do?
• What else can I do?
• What will I do?
• Am I proud of what I’m choosing to do?

What Can I Do?

The situation may be challenging. The difficulties, plenty. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, drowing in the sea of racing thoughts. Asking myself “What can I do?” brings the focus to what’s in my control. Fighting over things outside of my control is pointless.

What Else Can I Do?

It’s important to ask “What else can I do?”. It’s easy to settle in the first idea or thought at times of distress. Depending on the emotional state and frame of mind, the immediate answer to what I can do may be “Give up!”. Asking what else I can do prompts the mind to look for alternatives.

What Will I Do?

Hopefullly armed with a list of possibilities, my next question is “What will I do?”. I have the power of choice. If I’ve given thought to the list I came up with answering the first two questions, I should have what I need to make a decision and then commit to it.

Deciding to “do nothing” can very well be the best choice. Deciding to “let it go”, too. To quote a thought I got from Headspace, “Is a problem still a problem if we don’t think of it as such?”. What if what we first perceived as a problem turns out to be an opportunity in disguise?

“But what kind of opportunity in disguise would be best taken by doing nothing?”, we may ask. Maybe I’m being presented with an opportunity to be patient, to be mindful, to wait and collect more information and wait for the last responsible moment to make a decision or take an action.

If options such as “do nothing”, “give up”, or “let it go” are on the list, I’ll double-check to make sure I’m not just considering taking the lazy route, though.

Am I Proud of What I’m Choosing to Do?

This question I got from James Clear’s “3-2-1” post a few weeks ago: “Am I proud of what I’m choosing to do?”. I’ve had it written on my whiteboard and keep checking it multiple times to make sure what I’m choosing to do in the moment is aligned with my answer to “what will I do?”.

I have been very proud during the times where many people are concerned with how to be productive while quarantined.

So, for short, “What can I do? What will I do?” (big focus on the latter). Those are the triggers to get me thinking about those four questions.

Challenges happen to everybody. Some look for challenges, others are faced with them. To be clear, I’m not talking about the challenge of setting a game to a harder level, when you can easily fall back to an easier mode if you give up after not succeeding at the hard one. I’m talking about real life challenges. If you’re reading this in early 2020, I’m sure you can relate.

Adversities can trigger a number of different feelings. They can be scary, annoying, unsettling. It is very important we develop ways to find opportunity(ies) in adversity. We can ask ourselves questions like these:

• What are the challenges, risks, dangers?
• What can be learned?
• Who may need help?

Those are only a few questions that can be asked in the search for opportunities.

If we hit a wall, let’s learn to take a step back to widen our perspective, assess the situation, and either see through the wall or around it.

And please, hoarding all TP and hand sanitiers when a pandemic start is NOT a good opportunity found in adversity; learning how to make facial masks and donating it to those who need is.

To close this post, I’ll share this image I saw online this week. I believe it provides a clear illustration to what inspired me to write this post (even though I’ve been wanting to write this post since last year when I was going through some adversities).

Note: I couldn’t find the source to give proper credits. Please drop me a note if you know who created it.

Tired of bad news yet? Well, maybe you should be aware of where you’re looking!

I was born and raised in Sao Paulo City, Brazil. There was a time in my life where my morning rituals involved watching the local news as I got ready to leave for work. Every single day, no exception, the core of the news centered around how many miles of traffic jams we had and what kind of records we’re breaking that day.

Starting the day off like that was a torture. I felt miserable even before leaving the house. I didn’t own a car at the time, so that wasn’t an option for my commute. I could take the bus, on a ride that could take anywhere between 1 to 2 hours (or more) on any given day, through a congested city, on a bus that was always crowded and many times I couldn’t even get in (I’d be hanging off the bus, nearly missing hitting trees and lightpoles on the way). I could ride my motorcycle, which would get me to work faster, but the stress level would still be higher due to the risks of riding in that chaotic city. But I had to make that choice at some point.

I’d then get to work and the co-workers would be complaining about traffic. Going back home, it was even worse (drivers’ skills certainly worsen by the end of such days).

Still, I tortured myself watching the news everyday. It felt like Groundhog Day. So why did I do that? No idea. All I know is that I’ve eventually realized I shouldn’t be doing that. I replaced that nonsense habit with something like listening to music that lifts my mood, and other activities of such type.

That was in the early 2000s. I remember thinking: “man, why do they only show bad news? Isn’t there anything good out there to be shown?”

What’s up in the air?

The air quality in Sao Paulo is pretty bad. But I didn’t quite know how bad, since that’s the only air I had known up to that point.

I then move to Houston, Texas, in 2002. While Houston is one of the biggest cities in the US, it feels small to me compared to Sao Paulo. So one of the first things I just had to noticed was the kind blue sky. The next thing, the quality of the air: so, but so much better than Sao Paulo’s! I could actually feel it as I took some deep breaths.

Know where to look!

But why am I saying that? Well…

• if all I eat is junk food, I may not be aware of what better foods taste like;
• If all I listen to is bad language, what should I expect to come out of my mouth when I talk?
• If all I watch is bad news, I’m probably doomed to think that life is really bad!

So I’ve been making a point to myself to check what’s good out there as often as I can. Seeing examples of good people doing good things out there is always inspiring and that’s why life should really be about.

Here are some resources I follow on a daily basis:

TanksGoodNews

John Krasinski’s Some Good News

Upworthy

Intelligent Tuesday

Please, drop in a comment to suggest any resource you might recommend so I can check it out!