Are You Surviving or Thriving?

Choosing To Grow Through Life’s Challenges

By Judy Lamborn, OGI Executive Director

By now, we’ve all grown accustomed to the new list of “Don’t leave home without it” items. Thanks to Coronavirus, gone are the days where you just grab your keys, phone and wallet; now it’s your face mask, hand sanitizer and gloves depending on where you’re going.

We Choose Our Attitude

Everyone will agree the last few months have brought new challenges most of us never dreamed we would ever encounter in our lifetime. However, with new challenges come new opportunities. If you have to go through something unpleasant, don’t just go through it…why not GROW through it? Whether or not you agree with the safety guidelines you’re being told to follow these days, you do have the power to choose to have a good attitude about it and adjust positively to those changes.

Recently, I had to go through a situation that was emotionally painful. I was tempted to feel sorry for myself and adopt a “victim mentality” because I felt like I was being treated unfairly. After the initial shock, I knew I had a choice to make. I could wallow in the quicksand of self pity or I could maximize the opportunity for self-reflection and personal growth. (Yes, it took ice cream to finally get there!) I made the decision that if I had to go through this, instead of complaining, I would mine every bit of “life skill gold” there was to be extracted from the situation so I could use it in the future.

“Everything you face in life can be turned into a classroom IF you allow it to be.”

Life throws all kinds of curve balls at us. I’m sure you have faced seemingly impossible circumstances in your life that forced you to make a major adjustment in order to survive it. We’ve all been there.  I have great news….you made it! You’re alive today and reading this; that means you have a bright future ahead of you if you choose to grab ahold of it.

We have a saying in the OGI kitchen….”If you can’t find the horse, ride the cow.” Basically, it means if your current circumstances don’t meet your needs, figure it out and make it happen! Coronavirus wasn’t in anybody’s plans this year, but here it is. The question is, will you just go through it or will you choose to GROW through it?

Judy Lamborn designed the Life Skills component of OGI’s Culinary Arts Program model currently taught in classrooms around the world.