JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

Do you think that getting fired from your present job would be a really bad experience? Your answer is likely "Definitely yes!" Surprisingly, being given the axe - regardless of the stature of your job - can be a good thing. Many years ago one friend mine was fired from his position as a project engineer. He was devastated. Yet it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him.

Today whenever friends or acquaintances tell him that they have been let go from their jobs, his response is "Congratulations." he compliment them because he know that for people who want real success in their lives, this is an opportunity for them to go on to something better. A corporation can take away your job and your job tide but it can't take away your talent and creativity. By firing you, the corporation may be doing you a great favor in as much as you now have an opportunity to fully utilize your creativity and talent in another line of work.

Whether it's getting fired or any other so-called negative occurrence, the event can be a rewarding experience. Arme Morrow Lindbergh claimed, "One must lose one's life in order to find it." Many fired individuals have experienced a new and exciting life by losing their old way of life. They realized that winding up unemployed is a great opportunity to change careers and transform their lives for the better.

The point is that we should remain open to the unforeseen opportunities and gifts that negative events bring with them. I certainly hope that your house, or anyone else's, doesn't bum down. It does not have to be totally tragic, however. "If your house is on fire," a Spanish proverb advises, "warm yourself by it." In the same vein, a Chinese proverb puts things in the best possible way: "My house burnt down and now I can see the moon."

Indeed, there is something positive in most negative events provided that you are prepared to look for it. Having to sit beside a negative person on a long airplane flight is unfortunate. You will have to endure a long, rambling personal assessment of how tough life is. "Why me instead of one of the other 200 other people on this airplane?" you will ask yourself a hundred times during the flight. The least you will get out of this experience, however, is a valuable lesson in how not to be successful in life and how not to make an impression on others.

The key is not to allow yourself to be so overwhelmed by a negative incident that you miss the positive that the incident is offering. A crisis can wake you up and give you the push you need to get something important done. Many events in life can be tough to handle. The payoff is that they toughen you up to handle other difficult events whenever they come along. Make the best of the worst situations and they won't seem so bad after all.

Major problems involving painful incidents or major personal setbacks are often opportunities for creative growth and transformation. Many individuals report that going through a divorce or losing the whole wad in Las Vegas can give the mind a good rattling. Getting fired, as my friend found out, is the universe's way of te11ing you that you were in the wrong job in the first place. Major problems are mind-shakers that break old habits of thinking.

Some writers and philosophers say that nothing in life happens by chance. Richard Bach wrote, "Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you." According to people such as Bach, all the things that happen to us are part of a chain of cause and effect. We are responsible for these ups and downs. Our psychic energy attracts the good and the bad.

The good will outweigh the bad over the long term irrespective of what measure you use. The best of times can become the worst of times, but the worst of times can become the best of times. A distasteful event can be good if it adds to your awareness and understanding of the way the world works. Train yourself to see the positive aspects of such incidents and the power of the negative aspects will be substantially reduced. You may feel that you have touched bottom, when, in fact - once you see the positive - you are already headed upward. In the words of motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, "See you at the top."