For our 10th wedding anniversary, Gary & I went to Italy. It was an amazing trip. We started in Venice & then travelled to Tuscany & ended up in Rome.
One day, when we were in Venice, we were trying to get to the Rialto Bridge, and it seemed that no matter which direction we headed out, we’d end up in the same square!
The first few times, it was funny.
But then it became irritating.
How often do we find a similar result in our lives?
Life is not a straight line. We think it’s going to be, but most often, it’s far from that. Occasionally we’ll realize that we’re headed in the wrong direction in our lives, or not where we expected to be,
I was recently listening to a podcast interview with a woman who published a crochet magazine. Although I don’t crochet or knit, and don’t seek out creativity in those ways, I was fascinated; how she had gotten to where she currently was.
She equated life’s mistakes like mistakes that you’d make in knitting or crocheting: It’s just pulling out a few stitches, backing up & trying again.
If at any time in our lives we aren’t happy with our circumstances, we are at choice to change them. We are never a victim of our circumstances, and although we can’t erase the past and do it over again, if we don’t like the trajectory of where our life is going we can always change the direction.
I know because I’ve done it.
A bunch of times!
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the song, “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads:
And you may find yourself in another part of the world.
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile.
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.
You may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”.
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down.
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground.
Into the blue again, after the money’s gone.
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground.
It was our High School senior class song, and at the time I remember thinking it was a strange choice. Yet, there’ve been times in my adult life, where I’ve woken up thinking “Well, how did I get here?”
When we graduate from High School, we have dreams that we’re going to change the world. We observe the adults in our lives and pick out those we don’t want to become. There’s the minivan driving mom or the zombie middle-manager with all of her spirit gone. We wake up one day, and realize that they’re exactly who we don’t want to be, and if we don’t make some changes, we’re headed right in that direction.
As a health coach, I teach my clients to lean into change. We don’t want to change too much too soon, because that causes discomfort and the changes won’t stick.
However, sometimes you just need to rip off the band-aid (aka: Hit Refresh).
Read the rest of the article I wrote for She Hit Refresh Here.
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