Do you ever have a moment when nothing seems to be going right, and all you can think is, “Why me?”

At a conference I attended last year, a panel discussed their experience with vision loss. The youngest panellist started losing his vision at 12 years old (he was 19 at the time.)

This panellist talked about how, for the first number of years, he was asking, “Why me?” They sounded like some rough years for him.

At some point, though, the “Why me?” changed to “Why not me?”

This was the moment he started living life again on his terms.

Today, he’s even playing for the Canadian Men’s National Blind Hockey Team. (look them up on YouTube as they’re amazing players)

“Why me?” moments show up in challenging moments, whether it’s health issues, being laid off from a job, or a vehicle breaking down at the most inconvenient moment.

So, what’s in a “Why me?”

“Why me?” allows you to be a victim for a bit. A victim of the circumstance or someone else’s actions.

Though the “Why me?” you’re laying blame or justifying the problem. The result is a mindset that you don’t need to change for the problem to go away. Someone or something else needs to change.

Until then, you get to sit and feel trapped.

To change this, tell yourself that you’re bigger than any problem. When you do this you will start to feel ownership of the problem that has you feeling trapped.

Owning the problem will help you see that the problem doesn’t own you.

This is when you will shift the “Why me?” to “Why *Not* me?”

In this subtle shift, you get to take responsibility and do something about this problem.

You will see more clearly the actions you need to take to move towards solutions.

So, the next time you find yourself saying, “Why me?” Try converting it to, “Why not me?”

You’ve got this.