Being able to turn your experiences into something valuable is key, and every single thing you experience in life falls into one of these four categories:
1. A Joyful Experience
A joyful experience is one that instantly makes us feel happy and at peace — one that delivers pleasure, fun, engagement or satisfaction. Joyful experiences leave us feeling fulfilled and appreciative. We often consider this type of experience to be the most ideal. The truth is that many more of our experiences can fall into this category if we choose — it’s really a function of how we take them on.
2. A Learning Experience
This is the type of experience that teaches us something valuable about anything, including ourselves. This can unfold from a negative encounter or an adversity. These types of experiences leave us wiser and clearer about where we are going and what we want. Sometimes these experiences are challenging and can be difficult to recover from, but when categorized as a learning experience, they can help us grow by leaps and bounds.
3. A Stretch Experience
A stretch experience is one where you are called upon to be more than you imagined, to do more than you thought possible and to perform at a far higher level than you knew you could. These experiences are ones where you are invited to step up into a more empowered and capable version of yourself.
4. A Gateway Experience
A gateway experience is one that doesn’t appear to offer anything at all at face value, but that provides a passageway to something much, much better. Often times, gateway experiences can be disappointing and frustrating but looking back it becomes clear that they were a necessary stepping stone to a more optimal situation or outcome.
Being in the middle of a gateway experience can be one of the hardest places to be. Not understanding a “bad” experience or why it happened can be upsetting and can leave you feeling pretty trapped.
What are YOU Experiencing?
Everything we experience is a function of our thinking, and each experience falls into one of the aforementioned categories. Think about an experience that you have had that you would classify as a “bad” experience. Which category can you now classify your experience as?
I would bet that you have endured seemingly frustrating and even adverse experiences, only to have them be the catalyst for a positive change in your life.
Nothing that you go through is ever pointless. It just takes a trained eye to see where an undesirable experience might take you.
You may find that you need some help leveraging situations for all they’re worth, and coaching can help you get there!
Click here to start the process by setting up some time to chat — you will have a conversation that will instantly help you travel to a new point of view. I promise that it will be an experience you won’t forget!
