In life, and in business, things will always go wrong. It’s easy to let that get you down or get discouraged, but in fact, our biggest stumbles tend to lead to our most valuable lessons! If you’re ready to implement practical strategies to start re-framing things that go wrong as opportunities to grow and improve, tune in to this episode!

Take a moment to picture someone in your life for whom everything seems to always go right. This person might be a colleague at work who’s always on top of things and everyone seems to love her, or that mom of your kids’ friends who always looks perfectly put-together while baking delicious gluten-free treats for the next school event, or an online entrepreneur who simultaneously inspires you and makes you feel like you’ll never catch up. It’s easy to think these people have never struggled, and to feel jealousy.

Believe it or not, wishing for a smooth ride (like it seems like the person you’re picturing has) is counterproductive. It’s the bumps in the road that teach us all the good stuff! To start turning your breakdowns into breakthroughs, though, you need to make three key mindset shifts. First, you need to expect breakdowns and obstacles, and expect them as normal. In fact, you may discover that the joy is in the struggle! The second key mindset shift is automatically looking for the silver lining. The third and final key mindset shift is learning how to adopt a mindset of grace. This means not expecting perfection either from yourself or the people around you.

Tune in to learn much more about all of these mindset shifts, and what it means to make them. You’ll learn practical strategies, and I’ll illustrate how these can work through sharing a story about a humiliating experience I had years ago. After this episode, I hope you’ll understand how obstacles are actually opportunities in disguise!

Highlights

[02:14] – Ruth introduces today’s topic: overcoming obstacles, moving past mistakes, and turning our breakdowns into breakthroughs.
[03:50] – Before we dive in, Ruth offers listeners a worksheet specific for this episode. You can get it by texting “breakdowns” to 44222 or by visiting this link!
[04:47] – Have you ever noticed that for some people, everything seems to go right all the time?
[07:10] – Deep down, we all know that life isn’t all easy and full of sunshine and roses for anyone, even people who make success look effortless.
[09:27] – Ruth truly believes that anyone can learn how to turn breakdowns into breakthroughs, if they’re willing to make three important mindset shifts.
[09:52] – We hear about the first key mindset shift that we need to make.
[12:56] – The second key mindset shift involves asking yourself what you can learn from a challenging situation, or how you can grow from an obstacle.
[16:06] – Ruth explores the third and final mindset shift you need to adopt to consistently turn your breakdowns into breakthroughs.
[17:26] – Over the past years, Ruth has had a lot of breakdowns in her business. She shares one particular story about a time that something went wrong for her.
[20:42] – Ruth shares her reaction to being deliberately humiliated, as she has just described.
[22:31] – On her flight home from the situation she has been talking about, Ruth wrote down five reminders to herself: be humble, be kind, be generous, be encouraging, and be forgiving.
[24:20] – We hear about Ruth’s encounters with the people in her story after the negative incident that took place.
[26:00] – Mistakes and missteps are never fun, and we never want things to go wrong, but obstacles are really just opportunities in disguise.
[27:21] – Ruth reminds listeners to get the worksheet that goes with this episode. Either text “breakdowns” to 44222 or visit this link! She also invites listeners to get in touch.