Transforming Bad News Into Good News in 20 Seconds

Unless you’ve been in a coma lately, you may have noticed there’s plenty of bad news going around. But is it really bad news? Since we don’t know what changes will occur in the future due to the pandemic, or George Floyd’s death, or even our economic downturn, we can’t say with certainty if what’s happening is really bad news.

The same could be said about things that happen in your personal life. If your life is anything like mine, several times a week you receive what appears to be bad news. It need not be anything big. Perhaps you realize that your car needs a new muffler, or your back begins to ache again. Since things often don’t go the way we want, it’s important to learn to handle life’s little upsets without losing one’s equanimity.

So, how can that be done? What’s needed is a simple technique that can quickly change our thinking — even though we feel upset. That’s no small task. Luckily, there’s a method that is so simple and effective that it has even worked for a lazy person like myself. It consists of a simple — yet effective — question that can dramatically change how you look at “bad news” in as little as twenty seconds.

I discovered this method a few years back after an embarrassing incident. I was giving a lecture to my college audience about how good things can come from seemingly unpleasant experiences. During the break, a…