The Drive to Work

Do you ever find yourself wondering if this is it? “Have I made it, or is there more out there for me?” Heck, sometimes we even forgot to ask that question at all as we blindly stumble through our lives on autopilot, putting up with and settling for all sorts of things. Unfortunately, we aren’t often challenged to stop and take stock of where we are at until life throws us a major (usually brutal) hurdle like an unplanned event, a difficult diagnosis, or a sudden loss - a bit of an earthquake in our lives designed to make us pay attention. Sometimes though, the signs and hurdles are smaller, more subtle and harder to see, but they keep adding up - waiting for us to notice.  

This concept had been swirling around my mind recently as regardless of changing many aspects of my life, I still struggled with a chronic injury that was impacting my ability to enjoy life to its fullest and to work in the career that I loved. I still battled my mind some days and always felt as though something was missing and that there must be more out there for me to uncover. 

Sound familiar? 

Now don’t lie to yourself, I know you wouldn’t be on a website like this if you didn’t relate…even just a little bit ;) 

I wondered if perhaps rather than forcing and twisting ourselves to make our current situation better or settling for our health being less than amazing - we just need to try something else. This is a pretty abstract thought and I am the kind of person who needs a story or an illustration to make sense of new concepts before I can apply them. Lucky for me, one cold grey winter morning as I drove to work, mother nature put on a show demonstrating how this concept works in a way that has truly resonated and given me the motivation to take action and make some real changes in my life and I hope it can help you too. 

This “a-ha” moment came as I took the road I always take to work, same old grey pavement with a grey sky background. At one point during my drive, I happened to turn my head to the left about 90 degrees and I was shocked at what I saw. It was the most amazing sunrise! The sky was on fire with pinks, oranges and blues - not a touch of grey! I couldn’t believe it! How long had it been like that while I was only looking at the grey? And why didn’t I see it at all - even in my peripheral vision? I looked straight ahead again to double check that I hadn’t missed it out of the corner of my eye, but I hadn’t. Straight ahead the sky was grey and ugly and not even a hint of the beautiful sunrise was visible - even in my peripheral vision. In fact, there was no sign of this incredible spectacle of mother nature, no clues at all - unless I turned away from where I was headed and cast my sights in a completely different direction. 

So what does this all mean? 

While our ability to focus on a path is an admirable quality and beneficial in many circumstances,  sometimes we get tunnel vision in our lives and don’t take stock of where we are heading and why. Are we moving towards where we want to go, or is it just that it feels safe and is where we (and others) expect for us to go? We often forget that we can - and are allowed - to look around. Another direction might be even more amazing for you, but it can take a tremendous amount of courage to turn away from where you’re going and see what else might be available, waiting for you to discover.

Eventually as I drove on, some of the colours of the sunrise expanded and seeped into my view straight ahead, but I noticed: it took a lot longer to reveal and it wasn’t nearly as brilliant as what was happening in the other direction. I realized there was another layer to the lesson mother nature had just shown me. Had I not been willing to look the other way, I might have thought the slight tint of pink in the grey clouds ahead of me was pretty good, definitely an improvement from the plain grey. I could settle for that, it was safe and nice and was the direction I had always driven after all… 

Are you on autopilot? Are you settling for less than you desire or deserve? Do you feel anything but amazing? I now believe, if you’ve ever wondered “Is this it for me?”, the answer is clearly “No, this isn’t it!” The fact that the question crossed your mind proves it. It doesn’t matter what aspect of your life feels incomplete or just less than you envisioned, it eventually negatively impacts your health in the long run when you aren’t quite on the right path. If you want something different for yourself then you’re going to have to be willing to take action and change your course - even if you can’t see where that road leads. This might seem simple, but it sure isn’t easy. It’s always going to feel scary, vulnerable, and uncomfortable to stop where you thought you should be going, “unattach" from it for a moment, and turn a completely different direction. But, my friend, you never know what is waiting for you, right there, within your reach if you don’t take that chance, turn, and look. 

Is it worth a peek? 

You decide. 

-Dr. Mandy Downie