How Did It Get This Bad?
My life was falling apart. I couldn’t believe how bad it was & how quickly it seemed to happen.
I searched to find the “one bad choice” that landed me on the dark path I was on.
There wasn’t any one thing.
Simply a series of small changes that individually looked minor & harmless.
But when combined, radically altered where my life was headed.
My job, my finances, my health, my spirit & my attitude – were all a mess.
I didn’t feel like “me” any more.
I was super-stressed, eating poorly, lacking exercise, feeling isolated & sleeping very little. I’d put myself on the path to an early grave. I was beyond anxious to find a new path.
Then I discovered a big part of the problem. I was trying to control everything. In particular, related to making a career change.
“I once had a grip on everything. It feels better to let go.
~ from the song: I’m Not Over by Carolina Liar
Change careers – I was so ready. But instead of letting it develop naturally, I set it in my mind that I must have a masters degree. Instead making the end goal (career change) the most important thing, I was totally focused on a rigid set of steps that I decided must happen first.
And I’d become so determined & focused on getting that degree that I blinded myself to all the warning signs around me. Then one day I “woke up” & saw how bad my life had become.
A difficult decision, but I chose to leave school. Immediately my stress was reduced, I found time for exercise & improved my finances. In turn, my sleep improved.
In hindsight, one of the best decisions I ever made.
I can’t recall the author’s name, but I once read a book that talked about the importance of “choosing the hard no”. My hard no was dropping school & having faith that the needed events & people would appear in my life when the time was right.
And that is just what happened.
My life fell apart in 2007/2008. In 2009, I got back on the right path. And in 2010, I attended two life-changing seminars (by Barbara Sher). Those seminars solidified that I was making the right career change & significantly shaped the way I do business today. In 2011 I launched my business full-time.
It’s easy to seen now that I was trying to control everything out of fear. In this case, my level of adversity had to red-line before I was able to learn the lesson.
The lesson… don’t get so locked into a way of thinking that you miss what’s going on around you. Instead, pay attention, have faith, let go, & deal with fear in the right way. We all arrive where we need to, but we can’t always choose the route.
Bob
“If you’re busy regretting the past, then a new future can’t come in.”