Thursday, September 9, 2010

the benefits of set backs

After watching a particularly meaningful "Being Erica" that focused on how what we believe are set backs at the time they are occurring are actually gifts and if we let them they will reveal something about ourselves that we never would've discovered had everything run smoothly with no bumps in the road (that's right, instead of getting ready for work I furiously fast-forwarded our PVR to watch a t.v. episode as quickly as possible and came to work with dirty hair!).

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, setbacks are not something I normally ponder (they happen and I plow through them like they never happened) but after watching the show instead of showering, ironing, getting my lunch together or doing anything else remotely productive I sat on the couch and reflected back on all the perceived setbacks I've encountered over the past few years and the benefits they've provided for me. The ones that stuck out most in my mind are:

1) SETBACK: not having a baby a couple of years ago as per the "plan". BENEFIT: I never would've had the guts or opportunity to take a contract job with a little one to take care of and I'd be living in Oshawa, communting to Toronto on a daily basis and hating every minute of it (not to mention missing so much of our childs life).

2) SETBACK: not taking my Pilates certification a year and a half ago. BENEFIT: Your Pilates Place wasn't open, I didn't work at Durham College so I wouldn't have been hired to work at their fitness centre and my certification probably would've sat dormant until I forgot what I'd learned and I would've been so overwhelmed with starting a new job and getting the house renovations done I would've probably had a mental breakdown.

3) SETBACK: My boss not seeing my vision to combine 2 positions at my old job to give me a new challenging job and keep me at the company for a couple more years. BENEFIT: Even if I didn't love the job I would've felt that I owed them my time and stayed there unhappy.

So the moral of the storey is although you might feel it's bad to take 2 steps backward you're actually doing yourself a favour because you can look at the situation from a few feet back and re-assess if the path you were taking was really the right one!

Looking back at my "3 big ones" I am so glad they worked out the way they did.

xo
Jenn

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