The Gifts Hidden in the Challenges

I know I'm not the only one sensing a big difference in the way Thanksgiving feels this year. With all the restrictions and challenges we're still facing, it’s natural that our spirits are a little low. But hidden in all the challenges this year has brought, 2020 has also given us a few priceless gifts.

Many of the challenges we’ve faced this year have brought intense fear and pain, but we’ve faced the discomfort with conviction and have adapted like rock stars.

Just like when we’re building muscular strength, growth in life can be painful. But what results from that pain can be life-changing.

As I mentioned in my article, Picking Up the Pieces... Or Not, when everything around us falls apart, the gifts hidden in the rubble become beautifully apparent. When the dust settles, we’re able to see the pieces more clearly, allowing us to choose which pieces to pick back up - the ones that serve our highest good - and which pieces to leave behind.

Challenges offer the gift of clarity of focus.

Not only does this allow us to rid ourselves of ideas, energy, habits and people that aren't good for us, it also gifts us crystal clarity into what matters most.

And that might very well be the most valuable gift of 2020.

Yes, we’ve all had times this year when we’ve felt lost or scared, but beyond the dust of all the chaos, what has shone through is a strength more powerful than we ever realized was inside us.

We can read all we want about personal empowerment, but until we come face to face with big challenges, we can never truly KNOW and FEEL our true strength.

That's because our inner strength must be lived to be truly understood.

Challenges allow us the gift of knowing our true strength.

So while 2020 continues to throw challenges our way, we're learning something immensely valuable:

Not only can we handle the challenges, we can THRIVE in spite of them.

Yes, Thanksgiving looks different this year.

Like yours, my heart is sad that I can’t share a table with many of the people I love. But I'm thankful for technology that allows us to still make memories together.

And I’m thankful for the gifts I’ve unburied in the rubble this year.

With renewed clarity of what matters most, coupled with a new understanding of our true strength... We're poised to crush 2021.

Thanks to the gifts from the challenges of 2020,

we're poised to CRUSH 2021!

I am so thankful for you.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

Happy Thanksgiving my friend.

Xx Jen