When crisis strikes, ask, "What matters?"

When I look back over the years at the significant growth and positive change I have experienced, much of it has come from times when life has sent me tumbling ass over tea-kettle. They have been things that sucked to go through, but that ultimately planted the seed for something really positive in the long run.

This morning I ran across an interview with Rachel Remen MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom (a book I highly recommend). In it, she echoes that experience, pointing out that sometimes it's the negative experiences that jolt us into a life worth living. She says:

Very negative experiences, including anxiety and fear, have the potential to cause us to question the way we've been living. They're a wake-up call. They make people think more deeply about things and ask themselves questions like: What's important? What really matters? How do I want to spend my time, my money, my energy? How do I live more deliberately according to the things that are important to me? Just a very simple two-word question—"What matters?"—can change your life and the lives of people around you.

Such a short question, and yet so powerful. Yet too often we end up so immersed in the minutia of our day-to-day lives that it takes some kind of significant negative experience to shock us out of auto-pilot.

Finding the answer to that question can do two things as you grapple with your challenging situation. First, it can focus your attention on the things that are truly important in your life. It helps you keep from over-focusing on the negative and put your focus instead on what feeds and energizes you.

And second, it can plant the seeds for a long-term positive goal, putting your immediate situation in perspective and giving you something beneficial to focus on and move towards.

Even if you don't find yourself confronting a crisis right now, answering that one little question - what matters? - is one of the best investments you can make.

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst