It came out of nowhere. My wife and I were driving back from playing PokemonGo in a nearby park (yes, we’re still playing – it keeps us walking). A loud flapping sound started coming from the rear of the car. I pulled over and a quick check revealed the cause: a completely blown tire. We were close to home so I nursed the wounded SUV into our driveway.

With a sigh, I started unpacking the jack and spare tire, thinking of how my plans for the morning were now toast. By the time I changed the tire, cleaned up and went to the repair shop, the morning would be shot. I was frustrated and disappointed.

That’s when it hit me. I had a choice. Not a choice about having a blown tire. Not a choice about how I was going to spend my morning. I had a choice about how I was going to feel about it.

So I paused. Took a breath. Then I chose to feel grateful instead of frustrated. How? By thinking about the positives in the situation. We had a full blowout and no one got hurt. It happened on a side road vs. the highway. We were close to home so I was able to do the work in my own driveway. All things considered, this could have been a lot worse.

After my mental reset, I began the chore with a much better attitude, thinking of myself as fortunate instead of a victim of road hazard fate. While it didn’t make changing the tire fun, it made the experience a whole lot less painful.

As I was finishing, a good friend walked up. She had been stopping by just to drop something off (it was bacon – yep, she’s that kind of awesome). Since I was already out in the driveway, we got to talking and had an amazing conversation. She shared some pretty big life questions that she was wrestling with. I offered some things that I had learned in my struggles with those same questions. It seemed to really help her process. The discussion was very meaningful to me and our friendship is stronger for it.

Later, as I was reflecting on the morning’s events, I began thinking about everything that led to that beautiful conversation. Had we not blown the tire, I wouldn’t have been in the driveway and that deeper talk probably wouldn’t have happened. If I hadn’t decided to choose gratitude over frustration, I doubt I’d have been in the right head space to share anything helpful or hopeful with my friend. Something really good would have been missed, and I would have spent my morning feeling discouraged (and perhaps not Triple B’d – Blessed By Bacon).

You’re going to face blow outs in life. We all do. When they come, remember that you have the power to choose your attitude. And your attitude has a HUGE impact on how you feel. We can’t choose much of what happens to us but we can choose how we respond to it. Choose well and you’ll take another big step toward Becoming Yourself.