“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” -Dalai Lama

Opportunity often hides in the most unlikely places, but it isn’t easy to see it when you’re disappointed life didn’t meet your expectations.

Michael Jordan’s high school coach cut him from the basketball team, which may have pushed him to work harder and become an NBA superstar. Soichoro Honda wanted to be an engineer at Toyota until he was rejected, inspiring him to start his own company.

You never know when a disappointment might pave the path for something great. What wonderful stroke of luck have you had lately, and what can you do to benefit from it?

This post was originally published in September, 2009. Photo by LisaRoxy.

“The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.” -Pema Chodron

A while back, a reader commented that it’s easy for me to suggest tomorrow is full of possibilities, since I am relatively young. An older woman, she believed her options were far more limited, and that even if she could do the things she wanted to do, they wouldn’t count–not at her age.

My first instinct was to start a conversation about mindfulness, since no one is ever guaranteed more than the present. Even young people don’t know for certain that they have decades more to live, so all we can ever really do is use this moment well.

But then I thought about her comment about the future not counting.

I interpreted this to mean she couldn’t enjoy the rest of her days because she felt they would somehow be defined by the “wasted” ones that had passed–like a smile wouldn’t be as joyful as it could be because there were fewer than she wanted before it, or helping someone wouldn’t be as meaningful as it could be because it wouldn’t contribute to a lifelong legacy.

It seemed like she felt that life had passed her by, even though it was still going. I could relate to that feeling. I’ve wasted many days worrying about the days I thought I wasted. It’s a vicious cycle, and it only stops when we decide to use the present to the best of our ability.

If we worry about everything we wish we did, or could do with our lives, we will miss out on the opportunity to really live them–right here and right now. Regardless of our age, we all have two things in common: we get to decide whether or not we think this moment matters; and we get to decide what exactly it means to make it count.

The present is completely open, and we are living it, right now. What do you want to make of it?

Photo by Two Roses

“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope.” -Samuel Johnson

You’ll find lots of inspiring posts that suggest you hold onto hope against all odds and push through difficult times with your eye on a light down the road. This isn’t one of them. Sometimes hope is a beautiful thing. It can motivate, empower, and inspire you when you’re tempted to give up. But other times it just keeps you stuck.

When you push through today for a better tomorrow, without doing anything to create that new possibility, your hope creates the illusion of change to come.

When you hold onto the past, hoping to revive a relationship, situation, or time that’s come and gone, your hope precludes even better possibilities in the present.

When you hope you’ll someday know happiness—when you get the right relationship, the right job, the right adventure—your hope allows you to avoid reality. And it makes it unlikely that you’ll ever know happiness since hope for something else is the only way you know to experience it.

We all want to feel happy. We all want to avoid feeling pain. That’s what makes hope so exciting. It divorces us from the moment and projects us immediately into something better.

It allows us the freedom to close our eyes and imagine a world far better than the one we think we know. Hope is comforting, but not always empowering. Hope may give you possibilities in tomorrow, but belief gives you possibilities now.

When you believe you can be happy regardless of what you gain or achieve, you open your eyes and find reasons to feel and share joy.

When you believe you can have something better, you take responsibility for creating it, starting in this moment.

When you believe you’re complete, even if you don’t feel good in any given moment, you challenge yourself to think beyond your emotions, and remember the larger picture.

You can hope yourself into a corner, waiting for tomorrow to improve. Or you can believe your way onto center stage, and create that tomorrow you want. It starts right now.

Photo by reggie35

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s never over ’til it’s over, and that day isn’t today. How can you work with what you have, right now, to move one step closer to your dream?

Photo by Cangul

“He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.” –Proverb

We all go through phases when we feel hopeless. When everything gets overwhelming. Your bills, your responsibilities, your relationships, the dreams you put on hold—sometimes it all seems like too much.

In those moments the last thing you want to hear is that you’re lucky you can still walk or use all your senses. Those are things we all take for granted. Things that just are.

Except none of them are a given. The legs that allow you to practice yoga may one day be strained, sprained, broken, or even paralyzed. The hands and wrists that allow you to write may one day have carpel tunnel. The body that never seems strong or lean enough may one day be incapacitated in ways you can’t even fathom.

If you have your health, you have the freedom to change a lot of the things that dissatisfy you in life. You just have to take responsibility for doing it.

If you have the physical and mental capacity, odds are your biggest restrictions are your own limiting thoughts about what’s possible for you.

Hope is the belief that tomorrow could be better. Wisdom is realizing you have to make it better yourself. How can you use your capabilities to create new possibilities for today and tomorrow?

“Excellence can be obtained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible.” -Unknown

Just a simple reminder to use your potential today. Get started on that dream you shelved for later.

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” -John Allen Paulos

Dealing with the unknown is one of the scariest parts of life. People will go to great lengths to avoid it: stay with the jobs they don’t enjoy, maintain relationships that don’t serve them.

But sometimes, try as you may to make everything feel comfortable and safe, the future opens up like a sprawling road in front of you.

You end a relationship. Or lose a job. Or realize your field is becoming obsolete.

Uncertainty can be both terrifying and exciting. Either way, it’s inevitable. Your interpreation dictates whether you live fighting or accepting reality. Whether you’ll flourish or stand still.

If you’re struggling with the unknown today, you may enjoy reading our latest post, 5 Ways to Let Go and Embrace an Uncertain Future. Perhaps it will give you peace of mind when opening up to possibilities.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” Albert Einstein

This week’s theme has been goal-oriented, in line with the coming of a new year. But let us not forget in our evaluating our yesterdays and planning for tomorrows that living right now fully present is the ultimate goal.

A new year heralds a new beginning, but so does a new moment. Like this one. And the next.

How can you seep into the present and be who you want to be right now?

“Don’t let today’s disappointments cast a shadow on tomorrow’s dreams.” -Unknown

No matter how smart, talented, or well-connected you are, you will face disappointments in life. Even with the best planning, sometimes things go awry. Even after giving it your all, sometimes things don’t work out.

It’s an inevitability that can’t be avoided because of your status, wealth, or connections. The old cliche is true: into every life, a little rain must fall.

What differentiates success from failure is your ability to still believe in tomorrow even when today feels tough; your willingness to see light even through the darkest clouds.

Whatever blow you took today, realize it’s only a hindrance. Whatever pain you felt, understand it will go away eventually. Let yourself feel what you need to, and then let go, with tomorrow in your sight line. A disappointment is only as catastrophic as you make it.