Today, I would like to tell a story about an incident that happened to me last summer and the positive that came from it.

What happened…
It was late July of 2008 and I was working for a small subcontractor in the Baton Rouge area .  They were informed that the large contract they were helping to manage was not going to be extended as they presumably thought.  Because of this fact, the majority of their employees (including myself) were going to be laid off.  I was really o.k. with it, being that I needed the break.

Well, during the first week I was at home, I decided to put my truck in the shop to have a minor dent repaired.   After a week the repairs were done, everything was great and my truck was beautiful again.  The next day, I took my brother to the National Guard Base as he was going on his 2 week yearly military training.  He’d given me some information to give to our mom to take care of while he was out of town.

I decided that since I was out, I would drop the information off to our Mom while she was at work.  I stopped right behind her car on an angle, but instead of putting the car in "Park" I kept my foot on the brake.  As my Mom was talking to my daughter and our dog (Missy) through the back window, Missy started to gag on something she shouldn’t have eaten.  I panicked…..OH NOOOOO!  SHE’S GOING TO THROW UP IN MY TRUCK!!!!!  Not realizing it, I took my foot off the brake and the truck started to roll.  You can imagine what happened next…

My mom started to scream at me…calling my name.  I thought she was talking about the dog.  She just kept screaming and actually started to irritate me.  Finally, at the point when I was “hitting her car” she yelled….. "MY CAR!!!", but it was too late.

My first thought was…"I JUST got my truck out of the shop yesterday, I’m currently unemployed, what am I going to do?”  I got out to assess the damage to both vehicles.  I bent my front driver’s side and her rear passenger side.   Arghhh, not a great start to the day.

My Reaction…
I left the scene shaking and nervous.  I was so mad with myself, "How could I be so careless?"  Now, I was going to be out of another $500 to repair my truck AND I was still out of a job AND we were a few months away from paying off our debt.

Initially, I was having a little bit of trouble managing my emotions.  I just knew that later on my mom was going to hit the roof.  I replayed the  coulda, woulda, shoulda’s in my head.  I immediately called my insurance company on my way home and told them what happened.  I must say that they treated me with the utmost respect and care.

My mom called to let me know that no matter what, everything was going to be alright.  Sidenote: I hit her car and she’s calling to console me (go figure).  I then realized that even in this moment, I had to find a way to be – grateful.  I’d been listening to many different audio series centered around positive thinking and how to draw it into my life.  I had to now put it into action.  I immediately changed my sorrowful and somber attitude and decided that no matter what…everything WAS going be alright.

The Result…
The following week, I was called for a job interview and guess what?  I was got the job.  Was this because of my great attitude towards the negative that happened in my life?  Was it the fact that I chose joy instead of wallowing in self pity?  I choose to believe so…

***

You see, personal finance is not always about the dollars and the cents.  We will always have small to major events occur in our lives.  We have to face them with a positive attitude and the courage to know that everything will be fine.  Mistakes are made, bad decisions are made, BUT situations can still be turned around for our good.

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from."  - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross