Why Me?

Task 17, April 25 to May 2

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out”. John Wooden

Now, this story took place a long time ago. This was a time when there were no jobs for the blind, no programs to help the blind, so this young blind man turned to begging on the street. And since he didn’t play a musical instrument, or sing, or have any talent that he might exploit, he simply sat on a corner, cup in hand, asking for people to drop a coin in a tin cup.

He had his sister, who was sighted, write these words on a piece of cardboard: I am blind, please help. It didn’t really work. At the end of the day there were only a few coins in his cup.

Now, that was perturbing. He made his bank by people dropping coins in his cup. No coins, no dinner, and his sister wasn’t pleased.

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But, hope springs eternal, and the very next day the young blind man was at his corner bright and early, but despite the foot traffic (he had staked out a corner on a busy commercial street), people were not dropping coins into his tin cup.

Then a man stopped and said, “may I re-write your sign?”. The young blind man was perplexed, but said “okay”.

That night he went home with his cup full of coins. He showed it to his sister, who said “oh my”, and he asked her to read what the man had printed on the sign.

She did. It read: Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.'"

A re-frame. A positive spin that gets results. It gave me something to think about, because generally (well, actually, always) I am a “why does this happen to me” kind of guy. If the Buckeye lose: why does this happen to me? If the car breaks down: why does this happen to me? McDonalds gets my order wrong: why does this happen to me? I spill motor oil on the living room rug (don’t ask): why does this happen to me?

I had to re-think my position on re-framing. Then I came across an posting on reddit that was on this topic. And after going down the inevitable reddit rabbit holes, I found this: a person wrote: instead of saying “why does this happen to me”, say: “what is this trying to teach me…”

I applied that phrase to every single situation that I wrote about above, and the thousands that I didn’t write down, and in each case there was a lesson to be learned.

Task: Before you think up another excuse, or spin a yarn to make yourself feel better, look for the teaching moment.