The fork in the road...

[azskyman]

I suspect that as a manager I have come across just about every kind and type and personal concoction of human being that life could muster up over the years. I've been helping people learn to trust themselves since the early 70's. And boy can that be a hard thing!

I've had employees tell me to my face that the world would be a better place if I would die, and I've also had them say if I left the company they would too (they never really would!). And everything in between.

It's tough to figure out who you are and what you are supposed to be doing and how you are supposed to find your way in this world. Nobody except you can figure that out. That's why it is so darn hard. Your family can help (or sometimes hurt). So can your friends. But in the end, you have to do it yourself.

Along the way you have a whole bunch of forks in the road where you can go this way down one path or another way clearly different down another.

Sometimes though, in our search for who we are, we begin to think that everyone else is more successful, better looking, smarter, or superior to us in one way, the other, or in every way! We question ourselves deeply.

If you are really right with yourself....if you are comfortable with who you are, you will be able to feel good about many of those other people you come in contact with. You'll be happy for their good times. You'll encourage them when they doubt themselves, and you'll not feel threatened in the slightest way about the differences between you and them.

If you are NOT really right with yourself, you can take that fork in the road that finds you deeply criticizing things that others do, the way they look, the choices they make. You can find yourself trying to make yourself a little more "right" by making most others a whole lot more "wrong."

The secret, of course, is to find that comfortable place in your own life where you can be happy with who you are and the gifts that God has given you. We all have them. All of us.

Art perhaps. Music. Homemaking. Being a good friend. A care giver. A mom. A good salesman. A coach. Humorous. Lighthearted. Smiley.

The goal, of course, is to get secure enough in who you are, what you represent, and how you handle what comes at you in YOUR world that you don't carry the burden of jealousy or hatred or anger day after day. That is a heavy heavy load.

I mention this on the heals of some pretty exaspirating and trying times in the last couple of weeks here on Storm2k.

I'm a firm believer that in the end good wins out...not always right away, but later after that fork in the road.

We just turned down one, you know.

[Lindaloo]

Thank you Steve!! Those words are very comforting and your wisdom speaks volumes.

[Stephanie]

Great topic as usual Steve.

I think all of us are always saying to ourselves, "what if?" In recent years I've gotten away from a very stressful managerial job into one that's a better "fit" for me. However, I sometimes feel bored and wonder if I should get back into management for the challenge and to prove to myself that "I can do it". I'm constantly stating to myself, "if I had more energy", "if I could worry less about people liking me...", etc. I think I needed the fork I am on now to help gain some control over my life and needs, but if I was to take a different path once again, will I be able to balance those needs with the new demands? I don't know if I will have the chance to try it or not.

[azskyman]

Stephanie....the "What if" question can be a very very big one. It's still a "guiding light" (or is it a driving force?) in my life.

The biggest "What if" question of all will come up when you are faced with your last days (or hours or minutes or seconds) and you say to yourself, do I have more regrets about what I did that didn't work out or what I DIDN'T do that I wish I had tried?

While some people might not be bothered by that at all, I personally don't want any part of the second half of that option.

I'd rather look back and say to myself, "You sure screwed that up when you tried it, didn't you?"

[chadtm80]

Wise words again Steve Thanks!

[Stephanie]

Stephanie....the "What if" question can be a very very big one. It's still a "guiding light" (or is it a driving force?) in my life.

The biggest "What if" question of all will come up when you are faced with your last days (or hours or minutes or seconds) and you say to yourself, do I have more regrets about what I did that didn't work out or what I DIDN'T do that I wish I had tried?

While some people might not be bothered by that at all, I personally don't want any part of the second half of that option.

I'd rather look back and say to myself, "You sure screwed that up when you tried it, didn't you?"

Yes, same here Steve!

[vbhoutex]

Yes I understand those forks much better now, in part thanks to a wise sage from AZ!!! I have travelled one of those forks in the past year or so and indeed it has been enlightening and MOST REFRESHING. Many times we do not realize we need to take a trip down one of those forks. I didn't-I was hanging on waiting for the crap to pass-and leaving myself and my family in a turmoil that I didn't even see at the time. Fortunately, the Good Lord intervened and sent me down one of those paths and he still is(always does). It has been a strange, refreshing, stressful, rewarding, enlightening year for us as a family. As we continue the trip I pray we take the guidance as it is provided and use it to the best of our abilities.

I'd rather look back and say to myself, "You sure screwed that up when you tried it, didn't you?"

AMEN!!!!

[streetsoldier]

Consider, if'n y'all will, the twig in the river...

It is tiny, nothing in and of itself...but downstream it changes the courses of waters, which in turn change other matters.

My journey on this rock is just that...as a twig in the river. I have NO idea how many people will be, or have been influenced by something I have done, or not done; but I am ever mindful of the fact that, in the end, when I meet Him face-to-Face, I will understand how my "twig" fit into His Tapestry, and I will be content.

For did HE not say, The harvest is assured"? Why, then, worry so much? Rejoice, therefore....and wait until YOU see your "twig", and how it played itself out according to His Design.