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Thankfully life brings us plenty of experiences that we can use to grow from.

We grow as our experiences expand and eventually everything works out in it’s own perfect way.

However, usually, we fail to see the benefit of our hardships until years later when we look back at our life with a different perspective.  But it doesn’t have to be that way…

Our perspective, the way we choose to view things, makes all the difference in our enjoyment level, our happiness, and our success right now.

I believe strongly that our thoughts attract our life’s experiences to us. I also believe that we select (subconsciously) things that we want to learn in this life and that we attract circumstances to us that will help us learn and grow. Once the lesson is learned those type of experiences are no longer needed and therefore they stop showing up in our life.

Not so ironically, I learned this life lesson through my life experiences.

You’ll see a perfect example of how this works as I continue on with my life story. You’ll see that once I learned the lesson I was meant to learn the negative experiences, that I needed to learn from stopped.

So how do people get from a point of experiencing the same things over and over again to a new existence with greater speed?

They change their perspective. They change how they choose to look at their past experiences. They change it by “simply choosing.”

So choose.

Simply choose…

Choose to look for the lessons you’ve learned.

Turn your experience into life lessons or learning experiences.

Our past experiences are flexible. Peter Berger said, “The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened.” It is our interpretation of the past that can turn those experiences into life lessons or learning experiences. It’s our choice to interpret it the way we want to. If we choose to interpret the event as a stumbling block to success it will be. If we choose to interpret the event as a stepping-stone to higher ground it will be.

Choose to change your thoughts about your experiences into life lessons or learning experiences.

Albert Einstein said it well when he said, “”In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” A key to living a happy life is all in our perspective and our willingness to view the mistakes we’ve made in a different light.

Choose to look for the golden lining.

There will be troubling times. There will be sadness in one’s life.

“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” ~ Carl Jung

Those troubling moments and times of sadness give us a greater appreciation for the good things in our life. And in every troubled time there will be a golden lining. Look for it.

Choose to look for the positive in the experiences.

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.” ~ Carlos Castenda.

Even a negative experience has aspects that are positive. Focus on that.

Choose to look at the for friendships you’ve developed because of those experiences.

I’ve gained some friends that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t undergone the negative experiences. Chance are you have too.

So in reality if I stop to reflect I don’t in reality have regrets, I’ve got opportunities.

I’ve got opportunities…

• to grow
• to learn
• to change
• to expand
• to thrive.

You can too as long as you have the right perspective.