Sometimes you meet people in your life that tell you a story that keeps lingering in your head for a while. I met Katrina (not her real name) in my skiing class during Chinese New Year holiday and we got to chat about what we do for a living. She mentioned she originally came from Europe and had been living in Canada for the last 15 years of her life. She was in her forties, well-educated and had been working for a provincial government for about 12 years. She also told me that she was completely unhappy in her job; the pressure on output was high, the work was repetitive, bureaucratic and boring without any time or space to add a ‘personal touch’ or making a real connection with people, something she said she values very much. Needless to say, she was completely demotivated. She told me that at the end of last year, she made a New Year’s resolution to start looking for a new job and make a change in 2020. When I asked her if she had made this resolution before, it went quiet and after a while she said: 6 times already… We remained quiet a bit longer. Then I asked her what needed to happen in her life so she would not make the same new year’s resolution again by the end of 2020.
It took another while before she said anything but as she continued to speak a long and deep conversation followed on what was actually keeping her from taking any initiatives at work. The bottom-line of it was that she believed that as long as she would continue to work hard (like her father had always done), things would change, people would notice. Good things will come to those who wait, right?
It’s not that Katrina did not know what she really wanted, because her eyes started to light up as she began talking about wanting to move abroad, wanting to work in healthcare and as she continued to talk, her vision for the future really took shape. As if was the first time, she allowed herself to become excited as she continued adding in more colours and filling in the details of her future life plan. If it wasn’t for our ski instructor calling us to head down the slopes again, we could have continued discussing what needed to happen in the next 9 months, 6 months, 3 months, next month and next week in order for things to move forward. At this point it was enough for her to start believing that a different life was actually possible.
How many people keep their dreams and visions covered up and let their default life take over? Or they hang on to old limiting believes that just don’t serve them and that keep them stuck in life. Every moment is an opportunity to decide who we want to be and what we want to do in life. It is up to us to take that opportunity and create our own unique life that is just waiting to be lived.
