Obstacles as Opportunities: Reframing Life's Challenges

• Have you ever wondered why certain challenges keep appearing in your life? What if these obstacles aren't random roadblocks but carefully orchestrated opportunities guiding you toward your next evolution?

• The comfort zone might feel safe, but as we explore in this episode, nothing truly grows there. When life throws curveballs—whether it's workplace frustrations, relationship challenges, or personal setbacks—our instinct is to resist and ask "Why me?" But what happens when we flip the script and instead ask, "What is this teaching me?"

• This powerful mindset shift transforms our relationship with adversity. Rather than victims of circumstance, we become students of life, extracting valuable lessons from every difficult experience. Using personal examples from childhood perfectionism to workplace recognition struggles, we uncover how our reactions to present challenges often connect to deeper patterns from our past.

• The truth is, we're not in control of what happens around us—the universe responds to our energy and actions in ways we can't always predict. But we absolutely control how we interpret and respond to these events. When we view challenges as divine intervention preparing us for something greater, we open ourselves to growth, evolution, and possibilities we might otherwise miss.

• Next time you face an obstacle, try viewing it as an opportunity in disguise. What doors might this challenge be opening? What strengths are you developing? Where is this leading you? Your greatest breakthroughs often hide behind your biggest struggles.

Ready to transform your relationship with life's challenges? Listen now, and don't forget to like, comment, and share if these insights resonated with you. Your engagement helps this message reach others who might need it today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Elkivate Your Life
• 3:29 Shoutouts to Loyal Listeners
• 4:15 Life Challenges and Divine Intervention
• 9:52 Childhood Lessons and Perfectionism
• 18:42 Seeking Acknowledgment at Work
• 22:28 Reframing Obstacles as Opportunities

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Wow, wow, what's up? Party people, welcome to another episode of Elkivate your Life. I am your hostess, with the mostess L as in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart. So thank you for tuning in on this. Wisdom Wellness Wednesday, september 24th.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Still want to make sure that I am acknowledging all of my birthday listeners out there. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being a loyal listener. I also want to make sure that I give a shout out to my loyal subscribers. Mike Kaufman, thank you for being a loyal subscriber. Roger Haven, how are you, roger? Long time no talk or see. How does your garden grow?

Speaker 1: 1:10

For those of you that are loyal listeners, you know that I tend to comment on his skills for gardening, baking, cooking, lifting weights at the gym various different things. Shout out to my girl, kara lovemyartistetsycom. If you haven't looked at her website yet, highly recommend you do so. I'm always telling you that she has video montages and birthday announcements, anniversary, wedding proposal, asking someone to be the best man or maid of honor, along with very unique artistry paintings, wall decor, clothing, shoes, laptop bag, boots a variety of things. Eventually, I'll be coming for you, kara, just as soon as I hit the lottery. Anyway, you know what I mean by that. Right, let's see. Thank you, lisa Roberts Curbelo, for being a loyal sponsor. I see that you attended a mutual friend's birthday party. It was good to see your smiling face. Hopefully I see it in person before your birthday in November. And, of course, shout out to Kyle Few commitment to love. Love is a verb. I'm hoping that there's been a change of plans with moving to another country. Please keep me informed in this. And, of course, jeff Parra. Jeff Parra, good to see you out there enjoying Sprinter life and spending time with your girly girl, your loved one, glad that you are happy and thriving.

Speaker 1: 3:29

And speaking of thriving, let me just talk about today's topic. You're going to hear me drinking a lot tonight because, per usual, my good old OLP autoimmune condition is making it very challenging for me to talk, so let me just apologize. That's one of the reasons why I didn't show up on Monday, besides the fact that my day job is kicking my ass y'all. As you all know, I work as a special education para for Fallon Middle School. Love my job, love my kids, love the staff. But this year is the toughest yet because we're very understaffed and just more challenges, more challenges with scheduling, kiddos, yeah. So I apologize for not showing up consistently, but Monday was a struggle. Not only was I physically, mentally, every sense of the word exhausted, my mouth was also in a bad way.

Speaker 1: 5:13

So lately I've been contemplating my topics and then all of the something will come to me, and for tonight's episode I was kind of in my feels. Well, for a number of reasons and bear with me, guys, you're going to hear me yawning and drinking and all of that. I've had some health stuff going on keeping me up at night and so I'm a mess, but I'm here. That's also one of the reasons I haven't been on video, because I just don't feel like I'm presenting my best self, although the hair is growing out into something new. It's changing, evolving, growing, so when I can present myself properly, I will do so. So what I've been thinking about is why am I going through these struggles? Why am I going through these challenges? Why am I being faced with adversity, adversity, and then, after doing much research, listening YouTube, watching, podcast tubes, all kinds of different things I went back to remembering why all of these things happen, and a lot of us think that we are in control of what happens to us in the world today.

Speaker 1: 7:24

What happens to us in the world today, but that's a farce. We are not. We are not in control of what's happening around us, because we're the universe responds to us and actions, and you know, everything is created with energy, right? And so I realized, instead of looking at this, oh man, why did this happen and why did I get stuck with this? I started remembering kind of what I had shared with Jeff Parra when I had him as a guest. I used to say what is the lesson here? And so I reminded myself to look at it as not as an obstacle, but an opportunity.

Speaker 1: 8:26

So when things change, our schedule changes. Something happens with the job, a relationship, a friendship, a relationship, a friendship exchange with colleagues, family, dynamic, whatever the case may be, our initial reaction is oh my God, what can we do to fix this? Because I have to control this situation when, in fact, maybe these things are happening to dictate your next move to evolve, to change, to grow, to change, to grow. None of us want to remain stagnant, right? I used to have this saying the comfort zone is a great place to be, but nothing ever grows there, and I still believe that to be true If we don't open our mind, our hearts, our thoughts, our ideas to hmm, why did this just happen? Why did that happen with my friend, my partner, my colleague? Why did this happen at my job? Why did they change my schedule? Why did they move me with a different student?

Speaker 1: 10:08

All of these things are divine intervention, for something to teach us, to help us endure something we didn't know that we had the strength or the stamina to endure. Maybe just using the examples that I used, maybe these things are put in place to help us evolve, grow, change. So I'm always sharing with you about how I have a growth mindset, and there's some people that have a fixed mindset. And so I realized, with all these things that have been happening within the past few weeks, even at a staff meeting today, something happened. I got frustrated, I got annoyed.

Speaker 1: 11:27

I was like, oh, this teacher was trying to pay me a compliment and no one heard it, no one clapped, no one acknowledged it. And it's like okay, I have a choice. I can sit here and be mad and hurt and sad about this, or I can realize that she spoke my truth, that she recognized my worth and I know that I am helpful in the classroom and so do I really need everyone in this room to acknowledge it? Do I need it? No, do I appreciate it? Yes, why am I looking for that? Why am I so concerned about those words of affirmation? Why do they mean so much to me amongst my peers? Well, it goes back to my childhood, when it came to my mom, there were no words of affirmation, there were no physical touch. It was do this, do this, do that, make sure you do it perfectly. I'll give you an example.

Speaker 1: 12:51

One of the chores my brother and I had to do was make my mom's bed every day. Some of you might think that sounds absurd, but there were various chores that my brother and I had, and making my mom's bed was one of them, and she was very particular on how her bed was made. It's so funny because I'll catch myself being like my mom, like I'll go into those moments where I'm like, oh, this is what mom did, but I'm glad she taught me that. Anyway, going back to that, so we had to make her bed. It was a rarity that my brother helped. He usually chose to go be with a friend, or half-ass helped, or chose one of the other chores because he didn't want to do that one.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Anyway, one of the chores was making her bed, and I don't just mean tuck in the sheets and pull the bedspread and put the pillows, no, I mean military corners, and there could not be a wrinkle in the sheet. And it was to such the extreme, excuse me, that she would make it a point to tell me the next day, when I got in my bed last night, you know the fitted sheet had wrinkles. And I would just be like how do you even know that? Like what? That is crazy, right? Or she would say you know that they weren't military corners or you know. So she was very particular and I'm not going to lie, I make my bed the same way and if I happen to ask my husband or a guest that's over and I happen to be doing it, and they offer to help or whatever, I'm like that's fine, you can help. But just know I make my bed a certain way and well, I don't expect them to have every wrinkle out, although pretty damn close. And I definitely like to have the military corners because I like to get into a tucked in bed. I don't like a bed that where, like you get in, and you know the sheets aren't covered, especially during the cold season. Oh no, I want to get in and be the human burrito. So anyway, just thinking about all of those things and realizing all of these things are preparing us for what's to come. For I'm not saying, oh yeah, you know my mom teaching us about making the bed.

Speaker 1: 16:08

Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent and I didn't mean to. I guess what I'm trying to say is everything that happens, everything that happens, it is for a reason and it is to prepare us for the next thing in our lives relationship, job, responsibility, adversity, responsibility, adversity. So, going back to what happened today, why I brought up my mom is I realized that words of affirmation and physical touch were so important to me because I didn't get them. I didn't receive them growing up, didn't get them. I didn't receive them growing up. And if I did, man, I tell you I had to have been the perfectionist at everything Make the bed, prepare the dinner, set the table. I mean, everything had to be to perfection, and then I would be rewarded with a good job. Thank you for doing all these things, I appreciate you. And so I realized today I really wanted my principal because when the teacher made the announcement.

Speaker 1: 17:36

So here's how it goes everyone, at the beginning of our meeting, the principal will say does anybody have anything they want to share, or whatever, and somebody will go yes, I want to give a shout out to so-and-so for doing a great job on this spreadsheet. And everybody will go, yeah, great job. And clap and kudos. Well, today, when this teacher said, first I want to bring up Miss Elke, she's so helpful with me and my students in the classroom, and the principal went Elke. And then she was like and secondly, you know, mr Wigarling showed me how to do the care coins, and they're like oh great. And then when they moved on to the next person, they're like hey, I just want to send a shout out. I got a free Gatorade.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Today, someone brought me a free drink. Where did that come from? Pea lit. Oh, yeah, from lit, thank you. And the whole room clapped yeah, from lit, thank you. And the whole room clapped and I was sitting there going what the actual like what? What just happened? Am I being punked? Am I on video right now?

Speaker 1: 18:51

And it made me realize something so much bigger, which is, as the aides, as much as we know that we are needed and doing our job to make sure our kids are learning and learning social skills and following directions and making friends and all of the things you know, keeping them safe. All of that that, when it comes down to it, we don't always get the acknowledgement or praise that we would like to get. And so what ends up happening is it creates a bit of a divide. Ends up happening is it creates a bit of a divide. So when there are work functions and I say, hey, you know, to my colleagues, are we all going to go and show up? And they go. I don't go to those things, they're not going to miss us, they don't care about us. And I'm like that's why we need to show up, that's why we need to be a presence to them, so that they know we are part of this stuff and we are important.

Speaker 1: 20:05

And then, after listening to everything I listened today, I realized it doesn't take away how well we're doing our job. Every day. We know that we are giving it our best. And we're doing it not only because it's a job and we're getting paid for it, but because we love what we do. But because we love what we do.

Speaker 1: 20:39

I will say, though, to any of my staff members that are listening to this podcast it still is nice to be acknowledged as a part of the staff, and it's still nice to hear good job, we appreciate you. There's like a newsletter email that goes out once a week, I believe, and even once a month. It'll have all these things on the calendar and it'll say, oh, shout out to so-and-so who's been here this long. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I've been there going on four years now and I haven't seen anything talking about the AIDS, just saying it would be nice, it would be nice if they could recognize us and give us a shout out and acknowledge our efforts, but they're always saying mothers and teachers are like the most selfless job that you never get enough praise for, or you can't get paid enough, and I have to say I'm seeing that.

Speaker 1: 22:12

So I guess what I'm trying to share on this Wisdom Wellness Wednesday today is that, if you are faced with challenges, obstacles, adversity, things, that you are wondering why is this happening? Why is this happening to me? What does this mean? What is this about? Maybe, instead of looking at it as why do I keep facing these obstacles, maybe look at it as what are these opportunities that keep getting presented to me? What does the world have in store for me? Where is it leading me? And be excited about it and embrace it instead of resisting it, because maybe it's going to open new doors for a new relationship, job, growth, evolving, changing, adapting, overcoming all of the above.

Speaker 1: 23:37

So thank you all for tuning in, thank you all for listening, being loyal listener. Shout out to Dory for being a loyal listener. Travis I don't know, I haven't seen your comments lately. Shout out to Kara and my loyal listeners that have been commenting Rhonda Danae I'm trying to remember by going down the list Andrew, miss Nyan, miss Sam. Like and comment and share. It helps the algorithm, so it gets my podcast out there more and gives me more exposure to more people. So where more people will listen, more exposure to more people, so where more people will listen. So, instead of secretly listening, please take the time. Make the time to like the episode, if you liked it, to comment on the episode, if you have any comments, any feedback? Oh, barry Minard, let me not forget him. Anyway, I'm sure there's several others that I forgot to include, but it means a lot when you do that. You help me grow and evolve, which is what we're talking about. So thank you all for tuning in and remember like comment, comment, subscribe. Ciao for now.