Q. When is a negative experience not a negative experience?
A. When you take time to learn from it.
One evening, I made a list of some of the events that had transpired during the past week and ranked each one either positive or negative.
For example, I had two interactions with people who were so aggressive that it made me a bit uncomfortable. But the longer I considered these events, the more opportunities I saw to learn from them… to better understand my own reactions, and to discover better ways of dealing with people who have, let’s say, a few rough edges.
As long as you are open to learning, most experiences can end up being positive.