Art of Living: Turn Your Scars into Stars

Life is a difficult task. Often people let us down, circumstances go against us, our plans go awry, and we are inflicted with self­doubts, fears and worries. As we go through life, it is highly possible that we develop deep emotional scars due to our bitter experiences. Scars may represent bad memories, failures, heartbreaks, rejection and grave mistakes. These emotional wounds are deeply embedded in our personality influencing our behaviour and our very outlook on people and situations around us.

If you can have a positive attitude even towards your scars, you can transform your wounds into strengths and your scars into stars. Scars don’t define your weakness; rather they define how strong you are as a person. The scars that you carry within you are the living proof that you are not a quitter but a fighter. They prove how much effort you put into what mattered to you the most and how successfully you fought your battles. Without these scars you wouldn’t be the strong person you are today taking on this competitive world.

Scars are not merely painful memories; rather they are compelling experiences, they are the trophies, that remind you of all the challenges you have overcome proving what you are capable of. No matter how deep your scars are you need not be ashamed of them because these scars have made you more beautiful and stronger. The scars in your life enable you to fight till the end without having the fear of falling and getting hurt. They help you to keep on believing that you will bounce back and rise again. You are definitely of greater worth as a human being than all your individual scars and problems. Therefore, you have the ability to transform them the way you feel about them.

Turn Your Mistake into a Valuable Life Lesson

Acknowledge your errors: Before you can learn from your mistakes, you have to accept full responsibility for your role in the outcome. That can be uncomfortable sometimes but until you can say, “I messed up,” you are not ready to change.

Ask yourself tough questions: While you do not want to dwell on your mistakes, reflecting on them can be productive. Ask yourself a few tough questions: What went wrong? What could I do better next time? What did I learn from this? Write down your responses and you will see the situation a little more clearly.

Make a plan: Make a plan that will help you avoid making a similar mistake.

Be as detailed as possible but remain flexible since your plan may need to change. Whether you find an accountability partner or you track your progress on a calendar, find a way to hold yourself accountable.

Make it harder to mess up: Do not depend on willpower alone to prevent you from taking an unhealthy shortcut or from giving into immediate gratification. Increase your chances of success by making it harder to mess up again.

Ways to Go through Conflict and Emerge a Winner

Acknowledge It: Until you acknowledge that there is a  problem there is no correcting it. As a leader of a group, you don’t need to be the last in the room to recognize what everyone else knows and experiences. When you identify the problem you can begin to work on solutions.

Welcome it. Yes, welcome it! Warring egos and personalities among your people, when properly channelled, can be one of the single greatest sources of inspiration you need. General George S. Patton was accurate when he said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. Don’t squelch diversity; welcome it.”

Elevate It: Now that you have acknowledged and welcomed conflict you can elevate it to a higher level. Rather than allowing warring personalities to be labelled as enemies, bring them together as allies to channel their creative energies for something good.

Celebrate it: Leading through conflict will not be easy. It will take honesty to face your conflict and courage to change it But once you do you can position yourself to be the benefactor of conflict and not the victim. When your employees see each other as teammates rather than adversaries it can be celebrated.