I'm sure you know Dave Ramsey; the renowned financial advisor. He's the best speaker I ever encountered on personal finance, he gives simple yet life-changing advice, and I've been following him for a long time now.
During a challenging financial period, Dave's house received a call from an American Express debt collector asking his wife, "Why would you stay with a man who won't pay his bills?"
This humiliating experience formed a turning point in Dave's life where he said: "Never again will American Express call my house and ask my wife why she wants to stay with a man who won’t pay his bills."
He managed to get rid of all his debts, and is now educating others on financial independence and debt management. All this was just an introduction to what I really wanted to discuss.
In life we often need that slap on the face as wake-up call, sometimes we need to be emotionally crushed and humiliated to start all over, and become entirely new people. This slap kicks you out of your comfort zone and reminds you how hard you need to work so that you can change your present, and future.
It's like the cliche story of when a man is told by his girlfriend he is not good enough and then he goes to the gym and becomes a beast. This slap has a lot of shapes and forms, sometimes it's destructive to the point that you have to build your life all over afterwards, and that's the beauty behind it.
Negative events do not always lead to negative results, it's often the exact opposite. Use these wake-up calls to change your identity, to change your reality!