On my Facebook feed this morning, I had a post from a few years ago appear. That morning I had been training with Shihan Andrello in Jiu-Jitsu. He had been reminding us that anytime you try for a submission you may be putting yourself in a bad position. You risk losing the controlling position you just had.
He was also reminding us that when you find yourself in a bad position to remain calm and look for the opportunity to change your position. When you remain calm and look for opportunity, you'll tend to find one. When you remain in the struggle of forcing a better position, you tire yourself out and find yourself in a worse position.
I remember thinking to myself how life is the same way!
Many times when someone finds themselves in an undesirable place in life they focus on the struggle they are having. This is emotionally draining. We've all heard the saying "Like begets like". It's all to true in many aspects. One of them is that when we focus on a negative outcome, that outcome will continue to repeat itself and possibly become even worse.