Sometimes life doesn’t work out like you want while you’re moving from one thing to another. Usually, when everything seems to start crashing down, it’s not because you aren’t trying to keep it together, but rather because something unexpected happened. It could be that an experiment failed, your car broke, down, or that the computer glitched and all your hard work was lost. It’s at times like this when you may feel like giving up the most.

Instead, turn it around into something positive and something you can use. Learn from these inconvenient accidents and times as you would a failure. For example, the first thing every college student learns is save often. Some students would write a sentence, then automatically hit ctrl+s to save. They trained themselves to do this so frequently it became habit. The students with this technique and habit never lost an assignment. They turned an accident into a lesson. They then developed a technique that worked, and then went on to teach it to others.

When transitioning from one career to another, especially if it’s one that will revolve around mentoring and teaching, you should learn to do this as well. Here’s an example of how:

Last week we got a surprise from the landlords at Lakeside Pointe at Nora in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the apartment complex I live in. Everyone is getting a 7-foot tall privacy fence… except they didn’t give us any warning, they just started having people come in and do it.

Talk about confusing and inconveniencing everyone.

Ripping a pole out of the ground with the skid steer and a chain.

They came in with a skid steer and started ripping out our rather crappy looking, broken down, three-foot high fences. How they do it is fascinating, really. They the forks on the front of the skid steer, then place these under the fence. They use the mechanical force to lift the fence, cement and all, out of the ground.

Once they removed the old fencing, they began to put the new fencing in. First by setting the posts, then securing the cross braces, and finally adding the boards to either side. To clean up, they lobbed off the very tops of the poles that stuck out over the top. All in all, it took them half a day to do 4 patios in total, then begin the next 3 on the next part of the quad I live in.

This, despite of how interesting it was to watch and chat with them about environmental impacts, was going to ruin the garden I had been working on for the last two years, and I was using as a test bed for some urban planning scenarios and lessons.

I should have been angry.

Crushed peppers and Malabar spinach

Not only was two years of an experiment going to be ripped up around the edges, but the light was going to be blocked and my plants would suffer the consequences. Not to mention all the trampling that was going to happen while they took down the old fence and put up the new. I had every right to be angry.

But I wasn’t.

Besides that the gents working on the fencing were very respectful and tried really hard not to damage anything, I wasn’t angry because this scenario is part of living and urban life in a place you don’t own. Lots of people who I help through the Savvy Urbanite Farmer Project live in apartments, and they are at the whim and mercy of someone else. I have to roll with the punches just as they may have to some day. So, I turn this into a lesson plan of how to prepare for this type of “catastrophe”, as well as a new way to make a garden and do it by example.

It’s also going to be a lesson for me too, as I’ve never had to deal with a privacy fence. I’ve always chosen to live in apartments with a shorter fence so I could have more light for the garden I love to tend. After all, it’s incredibly difficult to grow tomatoes and peppers without a lot of heat-giving light. They just don’t grow as well.

As my fiancé is pacing back and forth in our living room the day before and crying despair about how it’s all ruined, I was thinking about how to this into something beneficial for the career path I invented for myself. Here’s what I brainstormed in just a few moments:

• The light is changing, so I will have to come up with a fun way to bounce light around. This will be really helpful for other folks with a privacy fence.
• There will be a fence to work with, so I can use it for trellising or hanging plants.
• No one will be inspired by my work if I can’t get it to grow taller than the fence, so I’ll look into new types of plants.
• I can discover ways to repair the damage to the garden.
• I can look into ways that their equipment change the environment, and do case studies on these tools (like cement that holds up the poles, paint they use to mark electrical wires, etc.)

What happens in life is not isolated.

Every day a variety of things happen all around us, but when was the last time you stopped to think, “How can I learn from this?”  Many of us walk through life somewhat zombie like just moving through. We get up, make our coffee (or tea), get ready for work somewhat frantically, and race through the day from one task to another. Finally, comes the end of the day we crash unceremoniously into whatever activity comforts us for the evening.

But things are happening all around us, and they should be used to illustrate and inspire the lessons we are striving to teach. Humans weave together stories naturally, and they connect things around them in unexpected ways. So wake up, look up, and try to use life to its fullest extent.

Bonus: As you look for the silver lining in every situation, you eventually start to see the world as a brighter place no matter what comes your way.

Your thoughts?

How do you turn life events into teaching tools? Where have you found a silver lining? Talk to me in the comments. 🙂