How To See Something Unfortunate as a Good Thing

An old radio show called Amos 'n' Andy had on it the following conversation: Amos asked the Kingfish why he had such good judgment.

The Kingfish replied, "Well, good judgment comes from experience."

"Then," asked Amos, "where does experience come from?"

"From bad judgment," answered the Kingfish.

There's always something to learn from misfortune. And that's what this article is about: Dealing with adversity and setbacks. Dealing with events you didn't want to happen.

The Kingfish point out one way you can always look at a setback as a good thing: You can learn something from it. At the very least, something you can learn is how to avoid having the same setback twice. But if you use your imagination, you can do better than that. Before you even see how something turns out, you can find ways of looking at an event that make you feel good about it, even when it is obviously bad.

I'll give you some examples in a minute, but I want you to see that if a "bad" thing has already happened, there's no point in thinking of it as bad. Thinking it's bad doesn't help you to correct the problem, if it can be corrected. And if it can't be corrected, it still doesn't help you to think of it as a bad thing. People can learn and remember just fine when they feel good. You don't have to feel bad to learn from your mistakes. In fact, people tend to learn better in a positive frame of mind than a negative one.

So there is no good reason to ever hold onto the judgment of a situation or event in your life as bad, awful, terrible, tragic, unfortunate, or lousy. It doesn't do you any good to consider an event that has already happened to be bad.

You can find a way to look at anything that happens to you as good, and people who are habitually successful and happy do exactly that. You notice I said "anything that happens to you." If someone you loves dies, do not try to see it as good. You probably wouldn't anyway, but this is a disclaimer to let you know I'm not a nut case.

But the truth is, when someone who has had a terrible accident says, "I'm glad it happened to me; it made me aware that my priorities were wrong," they are probably telling the truth. And people who find meaning and value in even "bad" things in their lives are happier and more successful than those who just think it was a terrible misfortune. And it's not a matter of chance which way they look at it. It's up to each person how they will look at their circumstances. We have the choice, and we will live with the feelings that spring out of the choice we make.

If we take the easy way and choose to look at a "bad" thing as bad, we will get the results of the easy way: Bad feelings. But if we use our heads with a little more vigor, if we make the effort to look for what's good about it, if we choose to find a way to look at it as a positive thing, we will get the results of that choice too: It will be easier to wake up in the morning, we will be nicer to the people we love, we will take advantage of what we do have in our lives, and we will feel better in general.

You can ask yourself, How can I look at this as a good thing? Or you can simply assert to yourself, This is good! and then ask yourself why it's good. Declare it's good, and then allow your mind to find how you're right. Either way works well.

Try it right now. Think of something in your life that you consider "bad." It could be a condition you've lived with for some time, or something that happened recently you don't like and wished hadn't happened.

I'll go along with you. I was a little curt with my sister-in-law, and now she's not talking to me. Obviously that's bad. Any idiot can see it's bad. Only a starry-eyed goober would say that's good. But I'm going to try to see what's good about it. And come along with me, bringing the thing you think is bad with you. How can you look at it as a good thing?

How can I see it as good that I have this situation with my sister-in-law? Well, I can see right off the bat, I get to use it as an example in my book. Not only that, but it may be an opportunity to apply some of the other principles in my toolbox and might give me some good examples for those also.

How else? Hmm. Well, I really haven't gotten to know my sister-in-law very well as of yet, mainly because we live in different cities. And I know that sometimes in working out a conflict, people get to know each other a lot better, and there's no reason to think this won't happen with us. I can see it as good because it is an opportunity for us to get to know each other better, and at a deeper, less superficially social level.

How else can I look at it as a good thing? What about you? Have you found ways to look at yours is a good thing? Be creative. Look at it from outside your own perspective. If a professor of psychology knew about your situation, assume she could see it as good. How would she explain her position to you?

If everything is easy, I have no opportunity to apply what I've learned. In applying what I've learned, I learn it better. In handling a difficult situation, I can take knowledge and turn it into skill. From this perspective, anything difficult is good. Friedrich Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill me makes me strong." Although that statement isn't strictly true, the attitude is a good perspective to adopt when difficulties come your way.

I tell you truthfully, if you make these principles a part of your thinking, you'll be unsuppressible, unstoppable, and you will feel pretty good almost all the time. No kidding. The way you think makes a difference. And each principle is like another plug in the bottom of your bucket. Less and less of your happiness leaks out as more and more of these principles become a part of your thinking.

I know that some of them were a part of your thinking before you found this web site, although you probably don't have them worded exactly this way. I haven't put in principles like I can change my own life for the better because you already think that way or you wouldn't be reading this article. You already think in a healthier way than many people who wouldn't bother looking at this site because they think I'm just the way I am and I can never change.

You also already know that even if you are doing better than most, you can always get better. And each new principle, repeated many times, is a solid step in that direction. This one (How can I look at this as a good thing?) is extremely useful.

This is a principle of thought. Keep in mind that thinking is most creative when it is a dialogue — specifically, asking and answering questions. That's how to do your most productive creative thinking: Ask yourself a question and then try to answer it. For example, Sylvia has just been fired. She is on her way home from her ex-job. But she asks herself, almost with bitter sarcasm at first, "How can I look at this as a good thing?"

Sometimes when your body is filled with a negative emotion, a question like this won't have a good effect right away. Don't give up. Ask it again. And again.

"This isn't a good thing," thinks Sylvia, "not a good thing at all. 'But how can I look at this as a good thing?'" She just needs to keep asking. She needs to awaken the part of her brain that answers questions.

And it is awake! "Maybe I'll get a better job," she says to herself without much conviction.

Ask it again! Keep asking the question. Sylvia does, and her mind turns more and more to the question, and it stops mulling her misfortune and stops moaning about how wronged she has been, and turns slowly toward the question. Then her mind kicks in and starts bringing up answers, slowly at first, and then faster and faster.

"There were a lot of things I didn't like about that job. Now I have an opportunity to start over. It's a good thing I got fired. I should have moved on from there long ago, but I guess I was just being lazy. This could be the best thing that could have happened to me." And so on. Once the mind gets going, it can really come up with some good stuff.

Adam Khan is the author of Antivirus For Your Mind: How to Strengthen Your Persistence and Determination and Feel Good More Often and co-author with Klassy Evans of How to Change the Way You Look at Things (in Plain English). Follow his podcast, The Adam Bomb.