Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a number of friends come up to me and say: “I read your post on NYC and I’m so sorry! I know you are trying to be positive about it, but I know that that must have been heartbreaking. Are you seriously okay?”
Well yes, of course I was sad and disappointed and frustrated. I did truly want to move to NYC and work with some incredible people to make amazing things happen. I did everything I could to get there, but somehow, it all fell through in the end.
Now, I’ve also had some other friends who recently lost their jobs in company layoffs or received a rejection letter from their dream graduate program. I know of people who are dealing with disease, who have recently lost a family member, who are struggling with feeding their children every day. I know of a lot of people who are going through unfathomably tough times right now.
By no means am I saying that our individual problems aren't difficult and that we should just brush them off, because of course they are individually devastating and we have to deal with them in our own ways on our own time.
What I am saying though is that if you are going through a tough time and feel as though you have no control, remember that you can do something now. You have no chance of changing the past, but you do have an enormous opportunity ahead of you: the future.
I went to a session last night hosted by BC Business Magazine on Doing Business in Tough Times and the keynote speaker, Peter Legge, had a great quote:
“Something terrible happens when you don’t take action: NOTHING.”
Then Joe Segal, who is the founder of a company which became the largest shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company, said:
“it’s not the end of the world - it’s a new era.”
Finally, I know this video has been spreading around like wildfire lately, but I believe it is worth posting again in case there is someone out there who hasn’t heard of Nick Vujicic, who says:
“it’s not the end until you give up.”
So yes, spend the time to cry, to think, to hang around your house and watch TV and eat junk food for a couple days; your body and mind probably need it. But when you are starting to feel anxious and don’t know what to do, just go do something. Attend a workshop. Meet a friend for coffee. Read a book or two or three. Watch a foreign film. Write out your thoughts and ideas. Volunteer for a day. Go for a walk. Do it like Nike and just do it. Just do something. These small steps won't solve your problems, but they may give you a change in perspective or a brilliant new insight to get you on your way. And if not today, when?
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
Norma Jean, what a beautiful, inspiring post. You so eloquently validated the inevitable and very real emotional reaction to circumstances, both positive and negative. Ironically, the magnitude in which we feel joy, excitement and enthusiasm is the same magnitude in which we feel fear, anger and sadness. In retrospect we come to realize that each experience is given to us as an opportunity to grow and to evolve and that the result of such growth is something far beyond the imagination of that in which we originally desired. It appears as though there are big plans for you!
Posted by: Heather White | February 04, 2009 at 11:15 PM