Why being slapped in the face was a highlight of my week!

Wie geht's?

That sounds like an opening statement from one of my favourite TV programmes - Would I Lie To You? hosted by Rob Brydon.

Yes, it's true. This week I was slapped in the face and it became the highlight of my week.

You don't need to know any of the details. Imagination is more powerful than information after all according to Albert Einstein.

What you need to know is why it became a highlight.

Two reasons - one - recently a colleague wanted me to talk about a highlight and a challenge. This instantly sprang to mind and I wasn't sure why because on the surface it looks like a big fat lowlight. 

And then, two - I read this:

Amor Fati is a mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens. Treating each and every moment – no matter how challenging – as something to be embraced, not avoided. To not only be okay with it, but love it and be better for it. So that like oxygen to a fire, obstacles and adversity become fuel for your potential.

It was part of a post on a blog called Barking Up The Wrong Tree.

I'd actually read the post a few days ago on George Couros' wonderful blog.

The whole thing centres on control and lack of control. When slapped I had no control over events (I had no idea it was about to happen, it happened, I was stunned that it had happened).

But then I realised I had complete control over my emotional response - I could accept and make the most of what happened.

Want and need are wrapped up in this. 

More from that blogpost:

Life is not gonna give you what you want all the time. You’d agree with that, right? Then why are we so frustrated when we don’t get what we want? We take pleasures for granted and are frustrated by the difficulties. Yet we readily admit difficulties are inevitable and pleasures must be worked for. It’s totally inconsistent — and the source of most of our bad feelings.

Everything is not and should not be easy. You can get where you are going, but you need to start here, with your life and its circumstances, whatever they may be. It’s not a perfect life, but there is no perfect life. There is only your life. Love it. And rise to the challenges it offers you.

Yes, I love my wife, I love my life, and I wish you my kind of success (Dicky Fox).

Love and peace - Wozza