Have you ever looked at a setback and thought, “This is a disaster”? What if those so-called “bad things” aren’t roadblocks—they’re bridges? In this episode, April Shprintz flips the script on challenges and shows you how they might just be the shortest path to exactly what you want. From house hunting struggles to unexpected career shifts and even a golf course going up in flames, uncover the hidden opportunities in life’s detours. So, the next time life throws you a curveball, you might just see it as the bridge to something greater. Stay tuned—you won’t look at obstacles the same way again!
—
Listen to the podcast here
That “Bad Thing” Is A Bridge To What You Want
I am so glad you’re here. I’m going to talk about something super interesting, bridges. You don’t think bridges are interesting? Wait for it. They are way more interesting than you think. A lot of times when a “bad thing” happens, we think it’s a disaster and terrible, but the bad thing is not a bad thing. It is something that has to move or a situation that has to happen to move other things, other people or other opportunities to get you where you want to go. The thing that you’re looking at as a disaster is the shortest path to exactly what you want.
The House-Hunting Journey As A Bridge
I’m going to give you some examples. It doesn’t have to be a disaster. It can just be inconvenient or annoying. My best friend was looking for his first house and I had the joy of getting to help him with it. Look at all these houses and go with them. It was a joy up until about the nineth house. I said, “I have a limit of ten. I cannot deal with seeing all these houses and you’re not making an offer on any of them. I don’t understand it. What are we going to do?” I was getting a little punch drunk. I was a little tired of looking at the houses. It’s been over a few weeks.
The thing that you're looking at as a disaster is actually the shortest path to exactly what you want. Share on XHe said, “If this house isn’t the house, I’m going to stop looking.” What was interesting is at the house before that I’d had a conversation that did not seem like it meant anything with a nice young realtor about some properties that I wasn’t familiar with in the subdivision that my best friend was looking in. It is a subdivision of subdivisions. It has like 5,000 houses. What was interesting is one of the subdivisions within it, I wasn’t even looking because I was helping him look. I had some preconceived notions about those properties that were not true.
In that conversation, that realtor just happened to mention that those properties were very different than I thought. They were bigger and had more light. I follow it away as interesting conversation I had with this random realtor and didn’t think anything of it. My friend completely stopped looking for houses because he was also like, “I’m never going to find anything. What am I going to do?” The next day, I got an email from Zillow that had the most beautiful sunset view I have ever seen on it. I clicked on it.
He wasn’t even looking for houses anymore. He was going to take a break for a few months, but I clicked on it because I was like, “This view is amazing. Where is this?” Lo and behold, in the very subdivision we were looking in those properties that I would have never went and looked at before because I thought they were much smaller than they are that Realtor had told me about. That long arduous task of looking at all those houses was a bridge to getting my best friend the house that he’s going to close on in a couple weeks that is amazing and has the best view I have ever seen in this area of the country that we live in. It was just a bridge.
Unexpected Job Loss Leading To Success
Another example. Let’s say you’re someone who got fired or took an early retirement that they didn’t want. I had did this happen with a client. He was upset about it. It offended him It hurt his feelings and was not planned. It was not seeming at all like something that he would want. Fast forward, another year and a half or so, he’d built a huge business, written his first book, and done all these things that he said, “I had always wanted to do those things but I was too scared to leave the great job that paid well that I didn’t love anymore, but I was too afraid to leave.”
The Burnt Golf Course As a Metaphor For Transformation
That getting early retired against his will was the bridge. The thing that he didn’t want led him to exactly what he did want and that happens to us so much. If people examples don’t do it for you, I’m going to use a golf course. Again, talking about the subdivision that I live in. Its BGA, which is Big Golf Subdivision. It’s all about the gulf here. They have beautiful golf courses. There are five of them, and I remember when one of them was literally getting burnt to a crisp. They set it on fire.
It looked absolutely terrible. There are people who pay millions and millions of dollars to live on these golf courses and this thing looked like death warmed over. Not knowing what you’re looking at. You think it’s awful and if you had a little more information or a little more time, it was a bridge. Why? They burned that golf course because they were going to redesign it and make it gorgeous, and they did. The views got better. Those house values went up but at the time, they would have said, “This is terrible. I hated. It looks awful.”
Here’s the thing, it does look awful because you’re on the bridge and the bridge doesn’t always have the best view. The bridges always the shortest distance between where you are and what you want. In this case, a beautiful gorgeous golf course. My question for you is, whatever you’re experiencing now, that you like or you don’t like. What is that bridging you to? What is the thing that you most want? How could it be happening for you instead of happening to you? The thing is, it’s our thoughts that make it a good thing or a bad thing. If you can’t get there and you can’t say this is happening for you or it’s a good thing. Why don’t you just say, “It’s probably a bridge. It’s probably taking me to something that I want.” Let me know how that changes the experience for you. Here’s to your success.
