April Fools Day

As most of us know, 1 April is an annual celebration commemorated by practical jokes and hoaxes. So you would forgive me for thinking that centre management was playing a practical joke when I received a call on that day at 5.10pm telling me that a car had driven into my clinic. But alas, it was no joke as I was reminded that the practical jokes and hoaxes cease at midday after which it is no longer acceptable to play pranks!

When I arrived at the clinic it was quiet surreal. Flashing lights, police, Melbourne Fire Brigade, Ambulance and the whole area cordoned off. The question on everyone’s lips was and remains, how did this happen? To this day I still don’t know but accidents happen and I’ve always been a big believer in three sayings – out of every negative comes a positive, every cloud always has a silver lining and one door closes another one opens. The positive silver lining of this incident was I was gifted time – time to do things I was struggling to do, time for personal reflection and to think about how, as a new business owner, I need to manage the balance between working in the business and working on this business.

Resilience is a quality that helps us through daily stressors and major life crises.

One of the things I learned about myself is that I’m a fairly resilient person and can recover quickly from setbacks and unpleasant events. Not too much rocks my boat! Some things that happen to us in life our outside our circle of influence – we can choose to focus on the things we can actually do something about, or we can add to the stress in our lives by worrying and fretting over the things we have no control over. Resilience is a quality that helps us through daily stressors and major life crises.

So when life throws you lemons, make lemonade. I’m grateful for this gift of time, I’m grateful that no one was injured and we live to tell the tale and I’m happy to say we are again open for business! I’ll leave you with the delightful Serenity Prayer to help you through life’s challenges

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.