Theme of the week: Dealing with the difficult realities of life.

Each morning this week we’ll address a specific issue that is both difficult and impossible to escape.

The five I chose for the week are: Unfairness, Doubt, Criticism, Disagreements, and Failure.

My hope is that by the end of the week you will be encouraged and confident to choose a great response even when you don’t get to choose your circumstance.

Now for dealing with unfairness . . . 

As much as I would like to tell you the world should be fair, I can’t. Because no matter how much I want it to be, no matter how much you believe it’s supposed to be, life isn’t fair.

How you see the world shapes how you respond to it. This is an important foundation to understand and embrace because so many painful emotions and undisciplined responses stem from a violation of people’s expectations of fairness. 

You can contribute fairness to the situations you touch but you can’t control its presence. You don’t have to like it, or accept legitimate injustices, but you need to appreciate that you live in an imperfect world and prepare yourself to do great work in unfair circumstances.

Each time unfairness shows up on your doorstep, and it will many times, replace your surprise with composure and your resentment with resolve.

You get to choose your response. Even if you never got to choose your circumstance.

Embrace the chase. Do the work.