When life deals you lemons, make lemonade!

I have just spent the last couple of weeks in Hong Kong and Australia getting my fill of family and friends. It has been great trip because I have been able to chill out and reflect on the past few months given all the events that have occurred (which I’ll allude to shortly).

During our stop in Australia my wife and I have been emphasising to our 9 year old nephew that life doesn’t always go in the direction that you want it to. Part of learning in life is how to deal with situations and pivot accordingly. He has proudly memorised the phase: “When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade.”

Lemons

Back in August we took a trip to Columbia and Panama as part of my wife’s family reunion. When we returned to London in the morning we were greeted to an apartment that had 15 centimetres of grey/dark water that been sitting stagnant for at least one week. It isn’t the greatest welcome home after such a great trip. Furniture, electronics, clothing, shoes and other items were full of contaminated water and had mould growing all over it. Within the day of arriving home we had contacted the necessary people and we had moved out to a hotel in which we stayed for three weeks until we knew what to do next.

In those three weeks we balanced the dealings with the insurance company and owner along with aggressively looking for another apartment given this has been the third time the house had flooded; all of this while jumping back into our respective full-time jobs after a two week break. Note, the first two times the house flooded we were able to stop it just as it hit the carpet however this time we were able to stop it from causing significant damage. Yet after three times enough is enough. I won’t go into the too much more detail, suffice to say juggling all these items along with work commitments was very stressful and not easy. I have written before I always like to put things into perspective. The mere fact that every night I had a roof over my head and food on the table puts things into perspective; first world problems.

Lemonade

Although we lost thousands of pounds worth of furniture, electronics and clothing we are now in a new apartment which is closer to London and we are paying less rent. We were able to downsize given we had lost so much furniture (i.e. three bedrooms to two). It also gave Tanya and I an opportunity to think about our possessions and what we really need versus what we hoard.

Although we dealt with work travel, a death in the family along with all of the above we have made it through this situation stronger and in a better position. Essentially we have taken the lemons we were dealt with and have made lemonade.

Although we explained the lemonade analogy to our nephew, it is just as relevant to us. I recently heard Tony Robbins say that life happens for us and not to us. It is what we do about it that counts. What we have done is make lemonade and it is tasting pretty good so far!