Using Life's Lessons

From Margaret Rush, The Springboard Group, Inc.

"Students learn what they care about...," Stanford Ericksen has said, but Goethe knew something else: "In all things we learn only from those we love."

Add to that Emerson's declaration: "the secret of education lies in respecting the pupil", and we have a formula something like this: "Students learn what they care about, from people they care about and who, they know, care about them . . ." Barbara Harrell Carson, 1996, Thirty Years of Stories

Life is a constant learning process, which makes each of us a student.

Lessons can be big, bold and neon-lit, or they can be small, shadowed and barely noticeable until sometime down the path. Transitions are big, bold, neon-lit crash courses in life lessons, and being open to those lessons can make the learning so much easier.

Springboard looks for ways to clear the path, and caring people to teach and guide the student to the most positive outcome.

Sometimes the lessons are easily absorbed, sometimes … not so much. But our valued customers (the students) approach us for lessons, and our added value is to provide the compassion and expertise of professionals. Come learn with us!

Springboard's™ programs and services are designed for you, regardless of where you are in life's journey. We invite you to explore and share our resources with employers, groups, organizations, professionals or anyone supporting others through a transition. Visit us today at http://www.launchingnewlives.com/

Acceptance Empowers. How Not To Fear Change

Acceptance Empowers. How Not To Fear Change

Acceptance can be the first step in recovering from a loss, and often is the hardest.

Have you ever felt like a victim, or that life is treating you unfairly? It is easy to, when we are conditioned to expect the best life has to offer. Before we even realize it, we resist change rather than accepting that cycles of change are a normal part of our lives. Often in hindsight, that unwanted change (anything we did not choose, plan, or control)brings an opportunity. And we will miss that opportunity if we expend all our energy in avoiding the change that is to come with or without our acceptance!

Our primitive emotional response is to view change as a threat. And denial is also a deeply programmed response that protects us when we face trauma or shock. But there are times when it does not serve us well at all. When we use denial to avoid facing a painful truth, we can harm ourselves or others. When denial becomes a pattern of coping, you may be left exposed and unprepared.

Amazingly, change occurs despite our ability to accept it. Wouldn't the energy spent masking truth be better channeled to deal with the circumstances you are facing?

Acceptance is not "giving up"; it is seeing things as they are, not as we wish they were or hope they will become. Sometimes the very act of recognizing a problem opens the way for you to create a different outcome! Your energy can be re-directed towards creating a solution, plan, or an alternative to the one you most fear.

• Fear fuels denial; trust allows acceptance.


• Trusting that you will be able handle whatever comes is a powerful piece of acceptance.


• Acceptance allows you to take some form of action, and


• Action is in itself therapeutic, empowering, and moves you forward, away from feeling like a powerless victim.

Even when you are tempted by denial, your body and subconscious mind are never fooled. Problems with appetite, sleep, relationships or stress may be clues you are avoiding the truth about something in your life. Denial never made real problems or unwanted changes disappear, but delayed action can have a tremendous impact on the outcome of that change. Health issues are one example.

Acceptance is empowering; denial gives your power away to whomever or whatever you are holding on to. For me, that is a great motivator for leting go! Acceptance moves your forward, denial holds you back. Do you choose to be a victim of your past, or a creator of your future? The change you fear may ultimately reveal a “silver lining”!