The unexpected decision that changed everything

I hit burnout for the second time in 2015, only six months after I bought my own practice.

I had purchased a practice thinking that being able to be the boss, practice the way I wanted, when I wanted… would solve all of my problems after being in so many toxic environments.

Unfortunately, it only escalated the situation.

Instead of feeling like I had more freedom, I felt more trapped.

Instead of being able to enjoy the veterinary field again, I started hating it even more (at the time, I hadn’t known that was possible).

But then, in one second, my entire life changed.

During the course of our lives, there are moments where things happen.

Decisions are made. 

Experiences occur.

And in those seconds, we can look back and see a huge pivot in the direction of our life.

Up until then, I had been brainstorming ways to get out of owning a practice. Could I sell already? Except I had only just bought it. 

What about being in the veterinary field? Could I be happier in practice in general (this was why I was starting to get certified in acupuncture and chiropractic… another attempt at fixing my experience in the field)?

So far, none of these options had worked. But I wasn’t giving up, so I kept brainstorming (and feeling more and more trapped when I wasn’t coming up with any options).

Then I got an email. 

Just randomly from the author of a book that I had read.

And in it, she talked about a retreat she was holding.

I literally clicked the button and was signed up less than 3 minutes later.

That one decision set me on the path I’m on now.

But… I wasn’t looking for a retreat. I wasn’t looking for options outside of the field. I wasn’t looking for anything like what that situation turned into.

Because I didn’t even KNOW to look for things like that.

That decision was a massively pivotal minute in my life, but I COULD NOT HAVE PREDICTED IT. 

Could not have created it. Could not have planned it.

Never would have seen it if I hadn’t already been looking for ANYTHING that would move me forward.

We cannot predict what the path forward will look like.

We can only choose that we are ready for a change.

Even that pivot was predated by the choice to pick up a random book by some author I’d never heard of, and to sign up for her newsletter.

When I bought the book, I never could have predicted that it would lead me to a retreat, or how the retreat would change my life.

I thought I was just buying a book.

And then I thought I was just going to a retreat.

Moral of the story: We cannot predict what our path is going to look like. And if we spend all our time trying to figure out what our path will look like, or trying to find a certain doorway that looks like what we think it should look like, we’re likely to MISS the pathways that we actually should be following, the doors we should be going through.

How do we figure out which directions we need to go (why did I buy that book or sign up for that retreat)?

I’ll talk about that next week. ;)