As much as I hate to admit it, there isn’t a whole lot of good news out there, is there? Everything has us worked up, from the subprime debacle to rocketing gas prices, plummeting home prices, decreasing job opportunities, and increasing health-care costs. And I imagine many of you feel stuck in situations that you simply can’t do anything about — like staying in a job you don’t love until things improve or holding off on moving to a bigger home until you can get a better deal on your current one. A client of mine even asked her daughter to work for a year before going back to college so she could get the family finances on track.

And yet if there was ever a time not to become entrenched or allow yourself to be wedded to one way of doing things, one way of being, one way of seeing the world or yourself — this is it. If there was ever a time to create a fresh perspective, to see new possibilities in your life, your work, your relationships — in just about anything — it is now, as counterintuitive as that might seem.

So how do we turn what might feel like a crisis into an opportunity? Marcel Proust wrote, “The only true voyage of discovery…would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes.” And that is exactly the trick to not only surviving tough times but also flourishing in them: “to possess other eyes.” When you see things differently, you can let go of the old ways and turn your challenges into something thrilling. You know who’s good at this? Entrepreneurs. In fact, I invite every one of my clients to adopt such an enterprising spirit. Here’s why: Entrepreneurs thrive in times of chaos. If they don’t have something they want or need, they invent it. They have a passion for discovery, for seeing new possibilities in old situations. They know that the best ideas and the best outcomes often emerge from the bleakest circumstances.

To help you adopt an entrepreneurial spirit toward any challenge you might be facing, to help you see it with new eyes and turn it into something thrilling, I’ve come up with something I call a “page of possibilities” — a five-step exercise that requires only a pen and some paper. I’m going to show you how I recently used this idea to help a client of mine named Carla. But you can adapt these five easy steps to any situation you might find yourself in.