Transcript

Adversity And You! · Wanzology

Adversity And You Doo doo doot doot do-dit, do-dit, doo doo doot-da-yyyy!!!! Yeah, what's happening? How are you doing? Welcome to another Wednesday, and if it's Wednesday, you know it, it's another episode of WANZOLOGY ha-h- haa!!! I am your host, The Wanz, and I am, uh-oo, uh, what am I? I'm a human being who is constantly, constantly searching for how life works, and right now I am in the midst of what they call adversity. What is adversity you might ask? Well, for me, adversity is when you need to be getting things done, but you can't because of mechanical failure. Like, ohI don't know. The computer that you usually record your episodes on has gone on the fritz and you haven't fixed it yet. Or you are on a trip somewhere, maybe to the store or downtown and it's raining like cats and dogs, and your car decides not to work and you're broke down, side of the road, or you're at work and you are deciding, hmm, what shall I do now that I've completed this project, and right about that time, your supervisor comes through and Gu-Guh, drops big loads of project on your desk! That's called adversity. Anytime that you are held back or life gets difficult, challenging, in the least, you are in adversity. Now some adversities are more serious than others. Yes, some adversities have really good outcomes and some have extremely bad outcomes. It's those bad outcomes that we want to try to avoid. Don't you think? Bad enough that we have to go through all the crap that we go through when we go through crap, but then to have it stack up on us, overwhelm us to the point sometimes where we can't move or we lose confidence, or we lose the ability to decide. Yes, these are those things that adversity brings. So when I say adversity, I don't mean something simple like the shower was so comfortable and warm, you were in it until the water started to turn cold. That's not adversity. Adversity would be you are in the shower, all soapy, and the water stops running completely and you can't rinse off. That's adversity. Get it? Now, there are a number of ways to handle adversity. I have my own process. I go through adversity a lot, or at least it feels like I go through it a lot. And by no means do I think I'm an expert on adversity I just think that for me, there are a couple things that work. The first thing that works is for me to stop whatever I'm doing. Things are getting tight, nothing seems to work out, it's obviously time for me to stop whatever it is I'm doing. Pops used to say, “The first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have one.” And that's hard for some people. It's hard for me sometimes. It's hard for me to admit that, damn, I have a problem. I have a problem with, I don't know, managing money. I have a problem with compulsive buying of t-shirts on the internet. I have a problem dealing with what I would consider to be incompetent people. So how do I deal with these things? I stop, ascertain what the hell is really going on? What is it that has gotten me feeling agitated or is being difficult? What is it, is it a person? Maybe it's a place? Usually it's a thing. People can be a thing if they're a certain type of person, but that's another topic. Adversity. The difficulty of navigating life at sometimes can be overwhelming to the point where if you just kept going and kept going and kept going, you wouldn't get anywhere. You might get frustrated. You might get frustrated, and that frustration could turn to anger, And anger is almost always bad when you are going through adversity. Like I said, I try to stop. I try to pause when agitated, Take my computer, for instance. I had to do some kind of updates, and the updates went, but it turned the computer off and when I went to turn it back on, it quit. And it normally does that, press the button, it'll start up, and then it'll quit, and then it'll start up and run. Not this time. It just started up and then it stopped. Then it started up again, and then it stopped, and then it started up again and stopped and started up again, ran for about 40 seconds and stopped. Great. So yes, I stopped. I had to pause. I stopped trying to turn it on and immediately went to the internet and researched and did research, and there was a solution. The solution, the most popular solution was, oh, you're near, that's a sign of a power supply going out. Great. Those aren't just lying around, but I happened to find one that I could order and pay for and receive the next day. When I put it in that next day and fired it up, it ran for like three minutes. Cool! I have gotten through the adversity! Take it back to the studio, get everything all plugged in, get the power switch and it starts, and then stops. Starts, and then stops. That didn't work. Great. I had to walk away for about five minutes, because I wasn't sure what the next step would be, but I knew I was gonna have to spend some money. So back to doing some more research, finding out that the next thing it possibly could be other than the obvious of like wires being crossed or not connected correctly, 'cause I double check that already. There must be something wrong with the main logic board, the motherboard where everything is centrally processed and all the good stuff happens in a computer. Couldn't get one for four days at the minimum. Crap! So I'm gonna be without my studio computer for four fricking days, is that what you're telling me? So we put that on hold and actually ordered the motherboard, and now we're waiting. But step one was to stop, stop and ascertain how bad this adversity was going to be. Number two, have I been here before? Have I felt like this before? This adversity that I'm going through, is it similar to another past adversity? Normally, I can find one or two, maybe five different situations in my past where I've gone through something similar to the adversity that is currently facing me. What did I do then? Well, when it comes to the computer, everything I already described. It was a different issue. It wasn't the power supply, but the modus operandi was the same. I stopped, I then were researching, and then I picked a solution that was possible and I tried that solution out, and last time it worked. Like I said, it was a different situation. Ascertaining, what exactly is the adversity you're going through, and have you been through it before? The thing to always keep in mind is that because you've been through it before, you have what one of my shrinks would call “evidence”, you have evidence that you can make it through things. So even though it might feel like it's a waste of time, it might feel. Impossible, it might feel annoying and frustrating, once you determine you've seen this quote unquote ‘movie’ before. You have some sort of reference to say, oh, well what did I do before? Did that work? No. Did this work? No. Did this other thing work? No. Well, what worked? Oh, this thing over here, TA-DAHHHH!! Now that might not work in this situation, but at least you have a frame of reference. You have evidence!! You did not get to where you are today, right now, at this moment, just by being lucky. It took skill daring, a little bit of intelligence, and a whole lot of courage. So, the third thing, when adversity rears its ugly head, the third thing I try to do, is forget about it. Sooner or later, the adversity is going to go away. It becomes part of the past. So do I wanna spend a lot of my time stuck in that difficulty stuck in that past moment, moments, hours, days, whatever it is? Do I wanna stay in the past or do I wanna move on? This is where I really like, another reason, I really like baseball because they play 162 games in a season. So it's not uncommon that a baseball game will happen four out of five days in a row. Now if you lose four out of five games in a row, you're ready for a break, but every day you have to forget about what happened the day before because now you're in another day, and things could be, and usually will be completely different. Not because you've done anything different, yet, but just because it's a different day. Like right now it's Tuesday, for me it's Tuesday! It's not like last Tuesday and I, I swear to God, it's not gonna be like next Tuesday, and this Tuesday is not over yet. Tomorrow when it's not Tuesday anymore, I'm not gonna be worrying about what I didn't do Tuesday morning. I'm not gonna worry about what I forgot Tuesday afternoon because it'll be another day. So the three things are this. One, you have to stop. Then you have to really kind of ascertain where you're at, that's the second thing. Where am I at? What the hell is actually going on? And the third thing is after you get through the adversity, which you will, you gotta forget about it. And I don't mean like get amnesia and just forget it happened, but you have to move on. You can't stay in the past. Living in the past is kind of useless. Kind of like holding a grudge. Holding a grudge is the epitome of living in the past. I heard, holding on to a resentment like that, a grudge, is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Drinking poison yourself and expecting the other person, whom you have the grudge against, to die. That doesn't sound like it would work, but adversity can put you into not exactly the most, hmm, logical state of mind. So you have to be aware. You have to be aware of how deep your adversity is. First, you have to figure out that you're in it. Then how deep is it? You can figure out what you're gonna do, maybe you've been there before and then after that, move on. None of these things are easy. None of these three things are snap-easy, pulling all your spark plugs and replacing them with new spark plugs is just about as complicated and doable as the three ways to attack adversity. Like I said before, you didn't get where you are right now just by being lucky, chance, fate, karma, whatever circumstances are, what circumstances are, and everybody is going through a certain set of circumstances, just like you. Hell, for all you know, someone may be dealing with exactly the same adversity you are. Wouldn't that be great? And if you know if they're a bestie, then what do you do? You compare notes. That's what you do, “God, I hated it, but I got through it, like a trip to the dentist!” Some people love going to the dentist, I am not one of them. Adversity is when they put the shades on, and all of a sudden that needle comes out diggy, me no diggy at all!! But like anything else, that's a process. If it has a beginning, it has an end. Adversity and you is nothing more than you getting through whatever moment you feel is an adverse situation. And if you keep moving forward, the chances are very good. You will not be in that adversity for long unless you choose to. It's your choice. That's all I got. Now, you go have yourself a very, very good day or good time, whatever you're doing. I hope you enjoy it. I will see you won't see you, but I'm gonna be back next week and I hope you join me. See you later. Bye.