The Pain We Feel Today Will Be Our Strength Tomorrow

By Peter Cole

We live in volatile times. It can be easy to get swept along with the latest tsunami to hit your life and hard to hold on to what we need to. This book focuses on how you can recognise the signs that trouble might be heading your way and help you to work out strategies and coping mechanisms so that when you hit challenging times, you are prepared to deal with them and come out the other side, stronger than ever.

This book looks at work and our private lives and how you can pick yourself up and survive events that would otherwise have the power to derail you. It will show you how to make plans, to recognise people that you do not need in your life as well as people that you do. An uplifting book that will teach you a lot about surviving in the 21st century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665599382

Peter Cole

Peter Cole is Professor of History at Western Illinois University and Research Associate at the Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand. He is the author of Wobblies on the Waterfront (University of Illinois Press, 2007) and editor of Wobblies of the World (Pluto, 2017).

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2022 Peter Cole. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/15/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-9937-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-9938-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ABOUT THE BOOK

W e live in volatile times. It can be easy to get swept along with the latest tsunami to hit your life and hard to hold on to what we need to. This book focuses on how you can recognise the signs that trouble might be heading your way and help you to work out strategies and coping mechanisms so that when you hit challenging times, you are prepared to deal with them and come out the other side, stronger than ever.

This book looks at work and our private lives and how you can pick yourself up and survive events that would otherwise have the power to derail you. It will show you how to make plans, to recognise people that you do not need in your life as well as people that you do. An uplifting book that will teach you a lot about surviving in the 21st century.How water gets into coconut nobody knows

How water gets into coconut nobody knows

Dedicated to the Reader:

May you find happiness in your endeavours

CONTENTS

Introduction

Dedications

Chapter 1 Expect The Unexpected

Chapter 2 One Life To Live

Chapter 3 Don’t Follow The Crowd

Chapter 4 When Disaster Strikes – Assessing Where You Are

Chapter 5 Looking At Your Strengths

Chapter 6 Recognising Your Weaknesses

Chapter 7 Making Plans For Recovery

Chapter 8 Evaluating Your Options

Chapter 9 Learning From Your Mistakes

Chapter 10 Being Prepared To Accept Help

Chapter 11 Following The Example Of Others

Chapter 12 Having Faith

Chapter 13 Recovering Sustainably

Chapter 14 Evaluating Your Experience

Chapter 15 Learning To Trust Yourself And Others

Chapter 16 Learning To Recognise When People Are Trying To Derail You

Chapter 17 Learning To Recognise Trouble

Chapter 18 Coping Strategies

Chapter 19 Leading By Example

Chapter 20 Future-Proofing For Success

INTRODUCTION

W e live in volatile times. It can be easy to get swept along with the latest tsunami to hit your life and hard to hold on to what we need to. This book focuses on how you can recognise the signs that trouble might be heading your way and help you to work out strategies and coping mechanisms so that when you hit challenging times, you are prepared to deal with them and come out the other side, stronger than ever.

This book looks at work and our private lives and how you can pick yourself up and survive events that would otherwise have the power to derail you. It will show you how to make plans, to recognise people that you do not need in your life as well as people that you do.

An uplifting book that will teach you a lot about surviving in the 21st century.

DEDICATIONS

T o Paullette my beautiful wife, and our wonderful children Kaysha, Jonathan and Richard for encouraging me to fly toward our dreams.

To all those people who stand with me together, Pam, Darren, Victoria, Shaun B, Ravi, Hasmita and Lady Amanda I hated the idea of leaving someone out.

This is a message for people to keep hoping and believing in the things they want most in life, no matter how impossible those things may seem.

A kind of encouragement to let people know that dreams can come true if you believe in yourself. Life is like a musical when something happens unexpectedly you must improvise because the show must go on.

And yet again to you all, l owns a depth of gratitude for your ceaseless and untiring efforts.

My sincere thanks and grateful appreciation are hereby extended to all contributions whose cooperation made this book possible. The pain we feel today will be our strength tomorrow.

Chapter One

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

Oscar Wilde

(www.brainyquote.com)

T hese days, maybe more than ever before, we have to expect the unexpected. For the last two years, we have been under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic – something totally unexpected that took the world by surprise with devastating effects. Since the pandemic hit the world, children have been born who know nothing other than sanitising their hands and gazing at the adults they see wearing masks. Then, just as we were picking ourselves up from that and benefiting from scientists’ amazing work on the development of vaccines to keep us safe, in 2022 the situation in Ukraine hit us out of the left field. Even a month ago none of us would have given any credence to the fact that Ukraine would be suffering in the way that it is today. And while it’s true that governments potentially have the wherewithal to respond to these challenges that we face, the speed at which events unfolded in the case of both Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic tested the resolve of many of the world’s leaders.

In our own lives, we can often get settled into routines and ways of doing business that we can imagine will never change. They work well, so why would we change? We’re comfortable, so why would we change? We’re used to what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, so why would we change? The consequence of this is often that we can stick to the old routines that we know and love so well. However, these days it always pays to have a contingency plan. We always hope that things will go well, but if they don’t, or if we are required to change direction, will we be agile and adaptable enough to carve out a new path for ourselves?

I’m not suggesting some sort of bunker mentality where you convert the garden shed into a survival hub – rather that you adopt a state of mind that gives you the agility to carry on and be effective if your world changes. To have the resilience to look at things from a different point of view. Let me give you an example:

Joshua had a thriving little shop in the centre of his town. He tried to stock things that people would need, the usuals like bread, milk, eggs and, of course, newspapers, but then he went further and stocked items that could be used for a tasty evening meal, even a small amount of fresh fruit and veg. Although what he had to offer was limited it was much appreciated by the people who lived in his small town and Joshua was very happy being the centre of the community. He helped people by putting up lost-pet announcements or item-for-sale signs on his notice board. It was a good life and it provided a good income for Joshua and his wife and two children.

Then one day he heard rumours about a supermarket opening just on the edge of town. At first, Joshua didn’t really think it would be a threat – a lot of the people he served from his shop could walk to him and the supermarket would be a longer walk, or even a car drive for some. No, Joshua wasn’t worried. He knew that his loyal clientele would still pop in every day to see him. All the time that the supermarket was being built people told him how it wouldn’t make any difference, and they would still come to him for their essentials. However, when the supermarket did open, Joshua suddenly found his shop emptied of people. Milk had to be thrown away, the bread went stale on the shelves and the newspapers were bundled up outside for return to the wholesaler. Why had they deserted him? Joshua could not understand it. But if you think about it, of course his customers would go to the supermarket. It made no sense for them to do most of their shopping at the supermarket and then go to the village shop for milk and bread. On top of that, there was the fact that the supermarket would generally sell most things at much cheaper prices than Joshua was able to.

A month after the supermarket opened its doors, Joshua found himself in a desperate situation. He had made the mistake of thinking everything would be alright and had not considered the scenario of his customers doing all their shopping in one place and obviously choosing the place that had the most to offer. If he had done, Joshua could have put something in place before the supermarket opened. As it was, he now found himself in danger of having to shut the shop altogether. He couldn’t survive on the small amount he was making from people in a hurry who didn’t have time to go to the supermarket. He tried opening longer hours, but even that didn’t work. All it did was give him less time with his family.

It was Joshua’s wife and their son who suggested he should try something different in the shop to attract customers, even if it meant appealing to a different type of customer. Joshua thought it was an excellent idea and began thinking about what he could do to encourage customers back again. They lived in a rural town and so Joshua decided to start selling local produce from the surrounding farms, everything from eggs to honey, so that people could have something they couldn’t get in a supermarket – locally produced goods. The new products were a success and in just a few weeks’ time, he had earned a reputation for selling the freshest and most sustainably sourced produce. He was back on track! Joshua had come very close to losing his business, and it was the idea of his wife and son that ultimately saved him. However, he could have thought about the possible consequences of the supermarket opening a lot sooner and saved himself the stress and heartache.

And that’s what all of us need to do. Although there’s a lot to be said for being quick to respond to the unexpected, having a plan in place before anything happens is always going to be a better approach, not to mention one that will help us weather any storms that we face.

Of course, although Joshua knew that the supermarket was going to open and could have put more thought into what would happen when it did, often we don’t know what kind of problems we are going to face in advance. But there are still things we can do, such as:

• Ensuring we save a margin of cash for use in emergencies only. I know that seems a lot to ask these days, when every penny is accounted for, but cutting back and keeping a nest egg, however small, will be the first step towards ensuring that you have a cushion, should the worst ever come to the worst.

• You can also work on your mental attitude, to strengthen your ability to face and overcome difficulties. Panicking when things go wrong will not help at all, though naturally, it’s often hard not to panic. Think about things like yoga, meditation and prayers that will help you maintain a more sanguine outlook on life and provide a buffer when sudden events threaten to derail you.

• Share your problems with someone else. It’s often very difficult to see what we’re facing objectively when we’re in the middle of it. Other people may see things differently and offer you a different perspective, and