As you seek a successful life, there are a few things you can be sure of. You will face adversity at some point and you will also fail at some point in your life.
However, what separates someone who is successful from someone who is not is how they deal with adversity and failure.
“Successful people are the ones who learn to overcome it [failure] And the losers … are the ones who want to wallow in it. They prefer to complain about what happened to them and whose fault it was and why it happened. “Bill Bartmann
Bartmann has certainly had more adversity than his fair share. Yet instead of letting adversity crush him, he has used adversity to strengthen his character and forge a formidable mindset, a mindset programmed to create wealth.
“The people I know who are successful, the people who contribute to our society, are people who have failed many times, who have been frustrated many, many times, who have gone bankrupt, like Mr. Bartmann, many times. But somehow they never give up. ” – Clarence Thomas, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
And Bill Bartmann has identified that there is a 3-step process for dealing with adversity. Go through these three steps and you will achieve success.
1. Complaint
This is when we focus on what we have lost. The problem for many people is that they get stuck in this step. They wallow in self-pity sharing their grieving stories with anyone who cares to listen.
They look to blame and wonder how life can be so cruel. They do not accept responsibility for their life and therefore give up the power to change their current reality for one that is more pleasant.
2. Gratitude
This is the stage where you appreciate and focus on what you still have, as Oprah Winfrey put it:
“If you look at what you have in life, you will always have more. If you look at what you do not have in life, you will never have enough.”
When you turn your attention to what you still have, you realize that you have a lot to be thankful for. For example, you may have lost material possessions but still have the ability to regain those material possessions. And this time it shouldn’t take that long because you already know how to acquire these things. However, if you put in the effort and increase your awareness, skills, and knowledge, you can probably accomplish even greater things.
There was a time in Bill Bartmann’s life when most of the people who befriended him when he was rich left him when he went through a period of bankruptcy. That year, only one person sent him a Christmas card. It is a card that you always carry with you because it serves as a reminder that no matter how difficult things are, there is still one person who still considers you a friend.
3. New perspective
This is when you realize what you have gained with what you have lost. This is not always immediately apparent, but one thing is for sure. If you continually express your gratitude for what you have and strive to improve your current circumstances, a new way of looking at things will eventually be revealed to you.
As Oscar Wilde said:
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
In other words, you can lie on your back or on your stomach, it’s up to you.
Bill Bartmann realizes that success and failure go hand in hand, so he embraces both and works with whatever life throws at him.
“I’m not impressed by success or intimidated by failure. I treat them both as the same, just opposite sides of the same coin.”
So if you are currently dealing with adversity or failure, flip the coin. You will find your successful life on the other side.