Have you had a negative experience that resulted in a positive outcome for your life?

Yes, when i was born….Mother almost died, but thank the good Lord, she did not.

Yes, I was laid off from a job. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been non-voluntarily separated from a company. I had a lot of feelings swirling around me about it.

I was hired back to the company as a consultant. I went with the CEO on a series of trips to sell the company’s assets. I was hired by the buyer and made a Vice President of his parent company, as well as General manager of the division that he bought from my former company.

I have had negative experiences that resulted in me gaining knowledge that helped me for future negative experience. I do not have one that was the “dark before the dawn” though.

I can think of a negative experience my husband went through regarding his career that in the end was a gift, set him on a path he might not have been on otherwise.

@BoBo1946 How does that fit the question? Wouldn’t it have been better if she had never had her life in danger?

@JLeslie why yes. the positive was my Mother is living today.

Yes,when I was diagnosed with diabetes and most recently with MS.
You can choose to wallow in self-pity or get off your ass and find a way to be happy ;)
I chose the latter and am quite good at it.I’m thinking of going pro ;)

I always have positive results from negative events. I have no other choice, do I? The only other option is to stay negative the rest of my life. I learn something from everything that happens to me. Every bad thing leads to a good thing. Just as every good thing leads to a bad thing.

Some years back I had a financial meltdown, due to my addiction to plastic. Took me a long time to recover, but Idid, fully, and I learned my lesson.

Nearly dieing as many times as I have sort of took the urgency off of doing things that HAD TO GET DONE! I now and have taken a more laid back approach to a lot of what I want and what I do with my time. I take the time to acknowledge the little things that make life truly worth living! Money is not everything! ;)

Toward the end of my first marriage. It took a toll of me . Emotionally. I was on a rollarcoaster downwards. I had in my mind I was useless as my first husband said. Then I met a man that turned that all around. So you see I was better off and I found my second husband.

Yeah when I was 20, a car full of crazy bastards deliberately mounted the pavement &.....well let’s just say wrong place wrong time. The car slammed into my legs flinging me backwards headfirst onto the windscreen which shattered. A few stitches & a week’s hospital stay later I was good to go again. The positive being, hey I kinda got lucky. Second chances are always going to be appreciated.

@BoBo1946 Well, of course it is a positive she is living, thank goodness that was the outcome. I just wonder if there was something learned from the experience or a turn onto a different path in life that resulted from the experience? Otherwise wouldn’t it better that the scare never happened in the first place?

@JLeslie oh, understood that from the beginning. I did not answer the question properly. Understood.

I have had a “dark before the dawn” moment. There’s always a positive that arise from negative events. You just have to choose to look for it.

what @Frenchfry said.

@BoBo1946 wow, that really did result in a positive outcome for your life.

@ninahenry difinitely so… very thankful for that!

@BoBo1946 as are we :) jelly handshake

I’ve nearly died a few times, so I guess it’s positive that I didn’t, and I’m getting over fears from it now. It’s nice to see the positive side to things, but the hard thing is motivating yourself to get over something traumatic because you’re still healing; in times like that, it can be hard to see the plus point.

When our daughter was about two, my husband was in a bad car accident. The fault was entirely placed on the other driver, who tossed a ladder into the back of his pickup without tying it down. The ladder fell out on the highway and landed across both lanes. My husband came over a rise, saw the ladder, but did not have time to stop or even swerve around it.

Anyway, it was a horrible few months. He was totally out of work for two months, which is dreadful when you are self-employed. For another several weeks he could only work short days. His car was totaled. It took many months for us to recover financially from the loss of income during his accident. At the time, it was very stressful and worrisome. There’s nothing like walking into an ER and seeing your husband covered in blood, in a neck brace, with two doctors and several nurses working over him at the same time. Even once we knew he was going to fully recover, we still had to deal with the stress. The pain medication made him very angry, and the stress didn’t help. It was a long, dark time for us, but even in the middle of it we knew we were very lucky and that things could have been worse.

So, when we finally got a settlement check from the other driver’s insurance company two years later, it sort of felt like we won the lottery. After the medical debts (and lawyers) were taken care of, we had enough to put a down payment on a house, fix up the house, and put some aside in savings. It was a terrible thing to go through, but eventually it led to us buying a home sooner than we’d have otherwise been able and let us update and furnish the house. In the long run, the accident really helped us out.

@MissAusten I’m glad you’re all okay now!

I got engaged to a man, who left me a 2 months before the wedding day. On the guest list was his best friend, now my husband, with 4 beautiful children.

My father died, and I became much more focused on Family. Within 6 months I was engaged, and within a year married to a wonderful woman I might not have taken seriously before.

I am a huge believer in negatives ( that seem so in the moment ) having silver linings!

I went through a difficult divorce situation almost 8 years ago now and was absolutely reborn! lol

My choice.

It was the BEST thing I have ever done!

My life is great!

Everything fell into place in a most mysterious way, and I have never been happier, wealthier or more spiritually in tune.

I launched like the scud missle! hahaha

It was the single most growth producing experience of my life!

@Coloma Good for you! I also have had some interesting end results from seemingly dire negative situations. The old adage of every dark cloud has a silver lining rings true. It is all a matter of perspective!

Well, I have a chronic autoimmune disease. There have been positive effects, but it’s sure hard to get over the negative ones sometimes.

On the one hand, I have gained so much. I have learned much more respect for my body and health than I would have otherwise. And I’ve learned about myself mentally, too. I now know that I can handle challenges with grace. I usually do an okay job keeping my head up when I’m really sick. And that’s really nice to know, because aside from my health problems, my life is pretty damn good, and if it weren’t for the challenges and my reactions to them, I wouldn’t really have any proof of a strong character. Anyone can function well under great conditions. I know I’m strong because I can function well under shitty conditions.

I also had a near death experience related to my illness that taught me the value of time. I don’t waste time anymore the way I used to before that happened.

But this is not just a negative experience, not just something that happened once and something I got through and learned from. It’s something I’m going to have to deal with my whole damn life and I just can’t find the positive in that. I’m being realistic, not pessimistic, when I say that I will not go as far in life due to this illness than I would if I didn’t have it, and I hate that. It hangs over my head all the time. I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I’m sick right now and I’m leaving for college for the first time in two weeks. And I can’t find the positive in that, either. I want to be energetic and ready to face the world and try new things when I go to college, and I’m not going to be. I’m going to be tired and sick.

So I don’t know if I’ve answered your question the way you wanted because I can’t decide if this is for the best in the long run. I wouldn’t trade away the things I’ve learned, but my life would be happier, less complex and less painful if it weren’t for my disease. It’s hard to make the call because unfortunately this isn’t hindsight for me and it never will be.

@Mariah

You sound strong and resilient too, and…you have heart!

I think you’re gonna be just fine, the important thing is you are forging ahead inspite pof your conditions and that makes you a winner in every sense of the word. Good luck to you! :-)