PP 013: Finding Fortune in Our Misfortunes

Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host Kim Sutton, and today I want to talk to you about keeping your head high and your options open when things don’t happen as you plan them to.

Now as you know I’m pretty transparent in what’s happened in my life, what’s happened in my business, and this morning something pretty funny – depending on how you look at it – happened that I wanted to share with you all.

Finding Fortune in Our Misfortunes

I had to get up really early to take my 10 year old, Robert, to a tournament soccer game, and I was so careful about being quiet. I got dressed, put on my deodorant, put on a little bit of makeup, and left the bathroom but I had left the bathroom door open.

Now I don’t think I’ve shared with you that I personally have two cats, Fame and Fortune, and Fame and Fortune do not get along at all. Fortune was a cat that we rescued from the Humane Society about a year ago, and after about six months of having him here, he disappeared one day. I gave him about three weeks to come back and he didn’t, and I searched all over. I put ads on our local neighbors.com website looking for him and just didn’t hear anything. So I gave up. I hate to say it, but I gave up.

About a week later, I found out about another kitten, who I ended up getting, and named her Fame. And so for about six months Fame was my my desk cat, my lap cat. Everything was great.

Well, wouldn’t you know, one day I’m looking through my e-mail, and I get a notification that somebody has found a cat that looks very much similar to Fortune. And I go, and sure enough there he is.

Fortune’s been back in the house for about a month and a half now. He’s warmed up to the kids again. He’s warmed up, well, let’s be honest, he’s more than warmed up to me and to Dave, but to the cats – to our other two cats because Dave has a cat as well – he is not a fan. He thinks he’s the alpha, he constantly chases them around and he growls at them. Yes he growls. I have a growling cat.

Well this morning, after I was finished getting ready to take Robert to his soccer game, I’m going about getting my shoes on and my purse ready, and I hear the growling start. And all of a sudden I hear that Meroww. You know the hissing of the cats, and they storm… Fame and Fortune storm into the bathroom, and there’s a huge ruckus, and then, one after the other they run out of the bathroom and into the office and out the window. I’ll get into the window another day. But yes they ran out the window.

All was quiet. I didn’t make a big deal out of it. I was already out of the bathroom so I just kept on going, and then Robert goes in and comes immediately out, and he says “Mom, the babies put all of your makeup in the toilet.”

Well, I knew the babies hadn’t put it in the toilet because I had just been in the bathroom, and had put some on, but sure enough I go into the bathroom, and the contents of my makeup bag – not my makeup bag just the contents of – every single last piece of makeup, and the jewelry that was in my makeup bag, and all my makeup brushes and even a toothbrush, were there, in the toilet, in the toilet water.

I was thrilled.

I fished them out.

I threw them out.

Yes… I do not need to find another reason to bring pinkeye into my house if that’s really the reason why.

Well, I fished the makeup out. I threw it out… Everything that was in the toilet except for a necklace that I really liked – I won’t tell you which one – went into the trash, and then I thought about it.

You are supposed to replace your makeup after a certain amount of time, and I have never, ever followed that recommended date. I have been looking for a reason to go get new makeup for months, but I could never force myself to take the time away to go to Sephora, or to a higher end cosmetics department – which is what I really want to do the next time around – to actually do it.

I was always thinking, “I’ve got everything I need right here so I can keep on just getting by and some time I’ll get to it.”

Well. thanks to Fame and Fortune, this week I will be making that appointment. They have given me that kick in the butt that I needed to get out there and do something for myself. And the lesson that I want you to get out of this Fame and Fortune makeup catastrophe this morning, is don’t look at everything so hard.

When something goes wrong, try to figure out what actually has gone right in the situation… What opportunities are opening up for you.? What opportunities are presenting themselves? Because I guarantee you that out of every misfortune that you experience, there’s always a fortune – no pun intended with the name of my cat -there’s always a fortune waiting to be seen and discovered.

Until the next episode, I hope you have a positively productive day and week, and I look forward to hearing your comments.