Last week was one of those rollercoasters so typical of the human experience: a “good” week in the sense that a lot of work was being accomplished even if it did require us to work over the Memorial Day weekend; then a “bad” week when the same client for which we were doing all that work fired us from the account. The loss of the account also resulted in us yet again wondering about our financial viability, not just as a company, but personally.

Today I reflected on this a bit, and recognized for perhaps the umpteenth time how often I equate “good” with some form of external success. If a contract comes in, good. If a contract is lost, bad.

Yet I am a living testament to the reality that so often the “bad” times result in “good” developments for me, albeit not in a material sense. So the contract is lost and with it a sense of financial security, but perhaps it will free up more time for reflection, for a focus on my internal development, for, what, exactly?

We are so conditioned to interpret external negatives as, well, negatives, yet if we pay attention that almost never proves true. As an author I recently was browsing noted, something like a serious illness is always an invitation to spiritual growth – if only we’ll recognize this. So consider this a gentle reminder that your existence has nothing to do with accummulating material “success” of any kind; that the real lessons, the real opportunities, are hidden away in the dark places we so desperately seek to avoid.