Podcast Excerpt: One young woman, who always arranged her day’s work ahead of time, told me that the very hardest lesson she had to learn was having her plans disrupted. She said she used to get so angry when she was not allowed to accomplish things as she had planned that she would have a sick headache for days. Finally, one day, when things at work were just commencing to go the wrong way (according to her point of view) she caught sight of the following little phrase — “If you don’t like the outlook, try the uplook.”

It was so very apt that she laughed aloud, and as she did, the Manager of her department passed through and asked, “What are you laughing at?” The young woman candidly explained her frame of mind and her method of reasoning, and the Manager said wonderingly, “So, that’s the reason! I have been watching you for months and didn’t realize that your lack of progress was merely due to a stuffy desire to do things always a certain way.”

“Don’t you realize,” he explained, “that the truest test of efficiency is to be able to act in emergencies, and the only way we can ever act at such a time is to become accustomed to the doing of things we don’t like, and at times that are very inconvenient to us. For example, look at the military. As a general rule, the privates have their planning done by the officers a little higher up, who in turn depend upon the Lieutenants, and Lieutenants on the Captains, and so on until the Generals are the ones ready for any emergency — who know how to act when things go wrong, instead of wondering what in the world they will do next.”

The young woman listened with interest and commenced to see her work in a different light. A few days afterward, the Manager approached her and said, “These thoughts have helped me. Use them and pass them on to someone else.” He then handed her a slip of paper on which was written these words:

“This problem has been presented to me to solve. If I ignore it or run away, it merely means I shall have it to face again on some future day. I know that I cannot escape any lesson of life, hence, I shall confidently put forth every effort, knowing that this very test is making me stronger and better and more capable of handling difficult situations. I am strong, fearless, and certain I shall succeed in my endeavors.”

Become a patron of the Inspirational Living podcast to get access to the full transcript and access to the Our Sunday Talks series: http://livinghour.org/patron.

Subscribe to the Inspirational Living Podcast at iTunes & Stitcher

All transcripts from our motivational podcasts are edited adaptations of the original work and copyrighted by LivingHour.org.