Fiascos

Ever feel like you have days, weeks, months when nothing seems to go your way. The last few weeks we have had several of those. It started with Mike's office furniture that arrived with missing pieces and different products than ordered. That was finally resolved after calling the local store manager and giving up on the 800 number customer service.

I ordered a gift card well before Christmas that was to be sent to my mom. I never received a confirmation email but when I called they said it had been shipped - but never arrived. Several phone calls later and 2 weeks late they shipped a new one.

We have been in the process of re-flooring our house. In the process of tiling the kitchen we realize we were not given enough tile at the store in Nashville. After a phone call and a gracious friend Mike met them in Clarksville to get it. When Mike got home he realized the store gave us the wrong color. The next morning the store got to meet Mike halfway to exchange the tile out.

Everything is in place now and it was all worked out but it is definitely frustrating in the process. However, there is a theory I use alot in therapy that emphasizes looking for the alternative outcomes (positives) rather than the problem saturated narrative. For example, if you feel like you ALWAYS mess up when you are doing a project you try to find examples of times things went pretty well. We often have problem saturated stories yet several positive things have happened that we never stopped to notice. Doing this for a lifetime can really shape someone's perspective of how life has treated them. I had to stop and think about how many other things we have ordered that didn't get messed up to bring some perspective to feeling like life isn't all doom and gloom.

So try it sometime.....when you feel like you can't get it right or something keeps going wrong stop and take inventories of the victories, regardless how small. It helps keep us from always thinking we are failures. If you have a hard time doing it ask a friend to talk through it with you and help you look for alternative outcomes that you wouldn't notice.