I missed the road I intended to take as a short cut on my long drive home. Then I missed the turn that would have taken me to it in a round-about way. Instead, I had to take the prescribed route; the usual, crowded, primary one everyone else takes. Bummer.
I had my own ideas about how I wanted to reach my destination. On the primary route, the competition for space was tough because the traffic was heavy. Plus, Google maps was wrong in predicting the primary route would be faster. There were a lot of stop lights and, I swear, 75% of them were red!
As I CRAWLED my way forward, I had time to compare my travel progress with circumstances that we often encounter with other goals in life. We have one pathway in mind, then we miss a gate, a chance, or the timing, so we have to follow the same path as the majority of others.
If nothing else, I had a lesson in patience. I also had a lesson in increasing my preparation. The road wasn’t marked in the way I had anticipated. By the time I’d figured out an alternative for getting to that road, I had just passed the alternative.
Change takes a lot of adjusting – in both plans and expectations.
Maybe I needed to go slower. Maybe I needed to stop or slow down for further contemplation. Maybe the same could be said about some of the goals and dreams we want to achieve in a hurry.
I’ll never know if I would have encountered a road closure, become involved in an accident, or been slowed by traffic lights in another location. We never know what would have happened if we’d taken another road to our goal.
Patience, preparation, planning – and managing change. They’re really ongoing life lessons, aren’t they?
If you find managing change challenging, check this out.
