Ask Mikey: Go all in with good intentions

Have you ever gone all in or nothing into a situation that didn't turn out the way you wanted it to? Did you do it to the point where you pictured it to happen exactly the opposite way that it did? It always seems to work out that way, doesn't it?

You expect a certain situation to turn out great only to be very disappointed on how it turned out. Ironically when you don't expect anything at all, it turns out to be the very best time of your life.

There are a few things you should ask yourself, though before you over analyze the situation, if what you were trying to do was to your best intentions, but it backfired, at least you know in your heart that your intentions were true. At least you can walk away from the situation knowing that you did everything you could to try and make it work. By acknowledging this, you should never feel like you should regret something you tried just because of the outcome. Sometimes when we don't even realize it, by having the guts to try and make a good intention have a successful outcome, despite what the immediate outcome was, we never know of the seed we may have planted. In other words, by trying and what we see as failing, may turn out to be something some other day along the road.

It takes a lot of courage to make that leap to try new things or to create new positive situations. It takes courage because you go into the situation with no guarantee that you will succeed. This leap is a chance you take despite what odds may be against you. Character develops from the challenges you must face and, in the end, if your intentions were true then you have no shame in trying despite if you succeeded or failed.

In life there are things that we will plan for and things that will happen unexpectedly. There are going to be times where we get disappointed and other times where life takes us by surprise. It is all part of the mysterious journey that we are traveling on. We may not understand where we are going at times or why things happen the way they do, but the important thing is that we keep moving forward. As long as we move forward with good intentions then it doesn't really matter if we succeeded or failed in the end, does it?

Ahwatukee Foothills resident Michelle "Mikey" Arana is a 2003 graduate of Mountain Pointe High School. She offers free peer advice, however, Mikey is not licensed or trained, just a fellow friend to the community. All inquiries made to Mikey will remain anonymous unless legal issues occur. She can be reached at www.myaskmikey.com or myaskmikey@yahoo.com.