(Forgive the blurry photo, but you’ll see why towards the end of this post.)
Oftentimes, Pictures Fall Short
I was recently on a road trip with my wife and took some pictures. I was amazed at the scenery, but as I attempted to capture the experience in snapshot after snapshot… it simply did not do justice to all that I was experiencing… but I took the shots anyways because it was better than having nothing. The above picture is not at all about the speed limit sign… but when you look at it, you’d have to then question what’s the photo about? More on that below, but go ahead and scroll down if you cannot wait.
The concept around this picture led me to a metaphor… which I now write about.
Reflecting on My Circumstances
This morning I was up pretty early and engaged in some reflective writing. I was thinking about how content I currently am after having several weeks off from work between April and May. I found myself appreciating my job and the circumstances I am in as I approach retirement. This thought led me back to how I was feeling prior to mid-April, prior to my first week off – spent in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
As that mid-April vacation approached, I was depressed and pretty burned out. My job entails intense work with people in crisis and stuck between the mental health and criminal justice systems… and many of the people on my caseload are in jail waiting on the type of services that likely won’t come within the community due to the level of their charges.
I acknowledged in my journaling that although my outlook is positive right now, it can be fragile. My caseload can escalate pretty quickly and I internalize the crisis… I don’t have the ability to leave it at the office on a Friday afternoon at 5:00pm… nor do I want to. The people I work with can’t walk away from their circumstances at 5:00pm, so the human within me finds it difficult to even consider that as a possibility in my life. I’m 64+ years old and I’ve been this way all my life… it’s not going to change so I won’t debate the healthiness or lack of healthiness of this mindset, it’s simply how I’m wired.
What Changed?
As I sat reflecting on my new positivity this morning, I had to ask myself what has changed for me, and do I have the ability to prevent myself from falling into the hole I was in prior to mid-April? Are there steps I can live with taking that can help this positivity within my mindset about my circumstances become sustainable?
I came to this conclusion: experiencing a road trip is my happy place. Being out on the open road allows me to escape the hole I can often create for myself when paths turn into ruts and ruts become so deep I can’t easily get out. At some point… the rut becomes a hole, and it can happen so subtly that I’m not aware of what I’ve been doing to myself until I’m in a dark hole feeling like I cannot escape. Ahhh yes… that’s where the crappy mindset is born.
Okay, so the road trip is my happy place… does this mean I need a job where I commute a couple hours a day (preferably not into Denver because there’s no such thing as the open-road going that direction)? That doesn’t at all seem practical… that’s not sustainable for me.
The open road isn’t the cure… it’s the perspective I gain while out there that is the answer. I need to step back from my circumstances in the heat of crisis… I need to zoom out.
Stepping Back… Zooming Out
What does it look like to step back… to zoom out? I can’t answer that for you, but I can share how it may work for me. If you find this to be good advice then take it and run with it. But for me, I need to remember why I do the job that I do. I need to remind myself of all that is good about my circumstances, all the ways in which traveling this path serve the greater interests I have in this life. I need to remind myself in the heat of the moment of what I am fighting for…for what I am striving to accomplish, because when I do that I realize I’m in an amazing situation.
What if you are a person who looks at your circumstances differently? What if you’re not in circumstances that are allowing you to pursue the bigger picture visions you hold within your mind? Again, I cannot answer that for you because there are so many intimate details to your life story that only you can appreciate… but perhaps… and I say this not knowing a thing about anything in your story… but perhaps it’s time for you to change the picture.
Again, what does that mean? That’s not my question to answer… that’s yours, but maybe it’s time to turn the distractions down around you and start thinking about a game plan for making changes in your life.
- Where do you want to be? (This could be a physical location, it could about a career, it could be about a lifestyle, etc. etc.)
- What in your life right now is supporting you in that journey? (Maybe some things are working for you).
- What occupies space in your life that is creating barriers for you, that are actually preventing you from taking off on that journey?
- What are you prepared to do about it? (This is where be have to embrace the cost of making changes because we can become pretty comfortable in that hole when we look a the work that will be required to get out of it.)
These are simple questions and may help kick start your own process, or maybe they lead to more meaningful questions for you.
Regardless of how you get started, it all begins with taking the steps necessary to get a more accurate perspective. That hole that seems so incredibly overwhelming right now may not be as deep as you think. Being on the open road is what helps me… find that thing you need to do for yourself… and make a commitment… make a date for yourself to follow through… make a plan and do it.
…and back to the photo from the beginning. Can you see now that this photo really had nothing to do with the speed limit sign? Having a poor perspective… having a small perspective… it has a way of making us focus on things that are not at all a part of our bigger picture vision. Zoom Out!
(This is Highway 163 approaching Monument Valley, UT. It’s somewhere very near the Forest Gump location)