How Reframing Events Leads to Success

Have you ever wondered how some people always manage to achieve success in life even when they are going through traumatic events or situations?

What’s their secret?

I’ve researched what the most successful people do when the going gets tough and there’s one killer technique that I’m going to share with you today that you can start using immediately.

This is it:

Regardless of what’s going on in our lives, we can always ‘reframe’ our situation. So – no matter how bad everything appears to be, we always have the choice to make ourselves feel better by changing the way we view our problems or situations.

The key point is this:

We can’t always change the things that happen to us in life, but we can change the way we view them

Here’s an example of a smart student using the ‘reframe‘ technique to help her parents ‘view’ a situation differently:

Dear Mum and Dad

Apologies for taking so long to write, but my writing utensils were destroyed in the fire at my apartment. I am out of the hospital and the doctor says I should be able to lead a healthy normal life. A handsome young man called Pete saved me from the fire and kindly offered to share his apartment with me. He is very nice and drives a lovely motorcycle, which I like to travel on with him – we go so fast and it is fun. I think you’ll be happy when I tell you that he did the right thing and we got married last week…you see you’re going to be grandparents very soon.

Actually – there was no fire, I haven’t been in hospital, I’m not married and I’m not pregnant. But I did fail my biology exam and I just wanted to make sure that when I told you, you put it into proper perspective.

Love Your Daughter

So essentially, ‘reframing’ events is a way of changing your ‘perspective’ in life so that you don’t get so caught up in everyday problems.

The way that we choose to ‘frame’ our lives will depend on our personal happiness and achievement.  The fact is that there will be times when you don’t have control over an event or a situation. You do though, have control over the way that you ‘view’ the event or situation.

You can choose to ‘view’ it negatively or you can choose to ‘view’ it positively.

The research shows that those who reframe challenging events & situations positively will achieve much more success than those who reframe negatively.

Why?

In my opinion it can be easy to get caught up in everyday problems and this can block us from getting ahead. By ‘reframing’ events you can ensure you’re always moving forward and are not getting fixated on the problems in your life.

It’s all about context –  if you perceive something to be bad – that is often because you are comparing it to something you perceive to be better.

So, take a lesson from the most successful people in history and choose to reframe positively.

The inventor of electric light, Thomas Edison was a genius at ‘reframing’ events in his life and in my opinion it was this technique that powered him forward through every failure to his eventual success.

Having been asked this question by a New York Times journalist: “How does it feel to have failed seven hundred times?”, Edison’s reply was as follows:

Imagine what you could achieve if you began to ‘reframe’ the failures in your life instead of being blocked by them?

How Can you Start Reframing Today?

The next time you notice yourself feeling frustrated about a situation or perceiving something to be ‘bad’, ask yourself how you can reframe it?Start by finding something worse to compare it to by thinking, “At least ‘X’ didn’t happen”.Try flipping the situation around to gain a positive from it.Think about what you have learned from the experience – this can often provide a positive reframe.Consider how the experience will help you move forward and remember that failure is always a pre-requisite for success.

(Photo credit: Businessman Different View via Shutterstock)

Zoë B is a strategist, coach & the author of the Simple Life Strategies blog. Through her coaching programs and blog, Zoë helps others to learn the strategies that exceptional people use to overcome things like stress, indecision, worries, boredom, procrastination & fear so that they can perform at their own personal best. Connect with Zoë B on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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