I was recently interviewed, by Lin Eleoff from the “Gutsy and Glorious Entrepreneur” show.   Lin and I talked through a number of different aspects of how to deal with life after a major disruption.

Like most people, I have had a number of disruptions in my life from divorce, losing a friend to terrorism, leaving a corporate role after 29 years, and at 38 years young, a life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis.

It was the breast cancer diagnosis and the disruption that followed, that Lin and I focused on.  This disruption changed my life in so many ways, and as I found out, there was no going back to life as it was before the diagnosis.  I had to find a pathway to living, even though there was no pathway and no help to do it.

I had to sort it out for myself, and it was empowering myself through that struggle that I now share with other women looking for inspiration in the struggles of their life.  It was that desire, which led me to leave a secure, well-paid job and build a life and business providing an avenue for women to deal with the disruptions in their own lives in an empowering and inspiring way.

Let’s look at 3 Gutsy and Glorious ways to deal with disruption in life:

1. Always Look For Bridges

Bridges have the role of providing an avenue for you to find a pathway over an obstacle.  You probably cross bridges every day and barely give them a second thought or glance.  But bridges can also show up in your life in much more subtle ways as well.

Bridges may show up as a person, an affirmation, a course, a book, an idea, a place, a question, or that piece of information which provides you with a pathway and allows you to move over the obstacle which is disrupting in your life, no matter how small the disruption may be.

Question – What subtle bridges have you experienced in your life which helped you overcome a small struggle?

2. Bridges Come In All Shapes And Forms

One of the bridges in my life was a question.  It was this question which shone a light on how I was living small and showed me where fear was hiding in my life. It enabled me to expand my energy in my life in amazing ways.  It was a simple question:

“What was I doing to stay alive and what was I doing to live?”

It seems like a pretty simple question on the surface, but when I dug deep, I found fear showing itself every time I said “just in case”. This was what fear sounded like in my life. I had stayed in my job “just in case” “it” comes back.  I still had my wig “just in case” “it” comes back.  “It” being a cancer recurrence, which was a very real possibility for me.

Where is fear hiding and stopping you from living a “Gutsy and Glorious” life?

Who could you become without the fear?

3.  Be The Bridge For Others

As a society, we progress by providing an avenue for others to find the pathway through obstacles and struggles in their lives – it is the entrepreneurial spirit.   We do this by teaching each other what we learn in our struggles, to help them find their pathway through a similar situation.

“The two most powerful words when we’re in struggle: me too”

Brene Brown

Obstacles come in many shapes and forms, so do solutions.

When you learn something by working your way through a problem and then share what you learned, there is absolutely no point keeping it to yourself.  This is how we learn and help society as a whole, otherwise we would all still be living in caves.

What have you learned through your struggles that you could share to be the bridge for someone else in that same struggle?

The interview with Lin Eleoff got me thinking about how I have used bridges to be more “Gutsy and Glorious” in my life.  You can hear the full interview here.  I would love to hear how you have overcome your struggles in your life.  Please leave a me note in the comments – this is how we help each other.

Love Gai

PS Here is the link to the interview