Heading back to the car after lunch, a good-looking guy with a swagger caught my attention.

Or rather his t-shirt did!

Emblazoned across his back were the words, I create the havoc that keeps me from my destiny.

These words have a touch of irony about them. I think we might all be aware of times when weve got in our own way. And never one to miss an opportunity for growth, I ended up asking myself a question:

Where am I creating havoc havoc in my own life and what is it costing me? I beleive that everything crops up in our life at just the right moment. You see what you need to see; hear what you need to hear; feel what you need to feel, so you can come closer to who you really are.

Is this a new concept for you?

If this is a new concept just take a moment and consider something that cropped up for you over the last week and think about who you were being at that moment. If you experienced true, heart-felt joy and happiness we can conclude you were being close to the true essence of you in that moment. On the other hand:

If you felt frustration, disappointment, anxiety or anger then maybe you were some distance away from who you really are. If this is the case you may like to give further consideration to who you are, so that in moments of difficulty in the future you can be closer to your truth.

But I bet youre wondering what chaos Ive been creating!

Because I love writing I do lots of it. Sometimes too much. As I write this article, I have edited parts of a one hundred and twenty thousand word manuscript on my desk. Notes on a personal development book, by my side, and details of the eight articles I'll write by next Friday. And thats not all...

Of course there are my children to consider and a relationship to nurture; fun to have, friends to be with. But at the time I saw the guy with the T-shirt I entered a phase of my life when things suddenly got muddled. I got involved in too much. I lacked balance and then guess what happened? I put my back out.

Isnt it wonderful how your body does this kind of thing?

Just when youre feeling under pressure something pops and then suddenly you can hardly do anything. And of course I wasnt deterred! I found a way to work around the pain: hot-water bottles, a footstool to take the pressure off my spine and massage, and I was back in business. That was when something else happened.

Thats right, the hard-drive on my computer crashed.

The computer took a few days to resolve. And I admit there have been times in life when I might have got angry at this point. But this time I didnt maybe because a distraction occurred.

A blinding headache, with stabbing pains.

At this point I said, Im giving in. I take the hint.

But what might a back-ache, a computer crashing and head-aches have to do with creating havoc?

My back relates to movement and balance. When it locks up, it is like a vice I cant move forward, back, left or right. The computer crashing caused a temporary pause in my work, but not long enough, so the headache came along to force me to take time out from my head, close my eyes and recharge etc.

So how can this kind of information be used in the future?

Maybe, in the future, when I get backache, I listen to my body and stop long enough to get life back in balance. Perhaps then I wont need to put up with a computer crash or the headache.

And looking back a few weeks I can now see the importance of taking the break.

This issue has made me consider: what is most important when youre faced with a situation that creates havoc?

The answer, I believe, is gratitude. Everything enters your life for a reason. See it as an opportunity to grow. Come to love it. Come to understand it, and you will find it enters and leaves your life more like a ripple than a storm.

Embrace the havoc! It has a message for you about who you are.

Jo Ball & Neil Millar