Prospective Hindsight - Making The Most Of Suffering

This is a term that I came up with at the back end of last year when going through something unpleasant, and it’s something that current events have brought me back to.

Prospective - expected or expecting to be the specified thing in the future.

Hindsight-  understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed.

We all know what it’s like to look back on a painful event and see it differently, see it as a cannon event, something that needed to happen and led to something better.

That’s basically what hindsight is, only being able to fully understand something when looking backwards.

Well, prospective hindsight is the recognition of that hindsight, but during the event itself. It’s predicting the hindsight, understanding that in spite of the current pain or difficulty, it’ll be something you’ll look back on with an opposing outlook.

We’ve all probably experienced this to some degree, but instead of it being a random occurrence, I suggest it be something we create.

By asking ourselves during difficulty, “What would have to happen for me to look back on this event with a smile on my face?”, it forces us to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it makes us look for, and see the positive.

This not only makes us feel better in the moment, but it also leads us to take the necessary action that’ll lead to something better. By forcing ourselves to look for the lesson, we become the teacher.

So, for example, let’s say you’re going through a tough breakup, by forcing yourself to see how it can be looked back on as a positive, like “It made me never go for someone who made me feel small again”, well, now you can consciously choose to stay away from such people, instead of subconsciously slipping into an identical relationship.

You might think this only applies in specific situations, but I’d argue that it can be used in the most random, painful events a human can go through, like the sudden death of a loved one, for example.

Even though something like this is just painful, and can truly knock a person, if the death of that person led you to rekindle relationships with members of your family you lost touch with, you can see how, at the very least, something positive came from it.

As I said, it doesn’t fix anything, but it can take a load off, and by cultivating this mindset, it can lead you to make the most of pain and suffering, instead of leaving it as just that.

The next time you go through something painful, or frustrating, or difficult, just ask yourself, “What would have to happen for me to look back on this event with a smile on my face?” You make it seem less permanent, and actually lead you to create that exact scenario.