escape from the rat race

 I wrote this article earlier this year when I was trying to drag myself out of a period of feeling down and I still refer to it to keep my thoughts on the right track. I hope that you can understand the message behind it.

Look for the positives in every situation.

 I am now a strong believer in looking for positives in any and every situation, although sometimes it is very hard to convince yourself that something good will become of your bad experiences. One thing that comes to mind is loosing a family member, there is very little positive thoughts in your head when such a tragedy occurs. Getting fired from a job is another thing that can really shake your foundations - so to speak. It is only natural to grieve for a loved one and that needs to take place, but at least we can find comfort in the fact that they no longer have to deal with the pressures and problems of day to day life. I recently lost an uncle to cancer and although I was shattered when he passed away I was also glad for him as he was suffering a great deal. To see a strong, fit and healthy man waste away in a matter of months is heart breaking. He leaves behind two young sons which makes me realise how cruel life can be. To be alive and have no quality of life would have been much worse though, as so many people with illnesses have to endure. One positive was that it was all over very quickly and I know he will be resting in a much better place than here on earth. Probably making everyone laugh if I know my uncle Maurice!

When one door closes another opens.

 How true is that saying? You get fired from a job or go through a divorce or a relationship breaks down and it feels like your whole world has come tumbling down. You get angry at the person who fired you, blame your partner for all they have done wrong and probably go searching for reasons why these things should never have happened to you. Everything happens for a reason, if only we could see this at the time. I got fired from a job many years back and initially I was fuming. Why did they do this? How am I going to keep up with the bills? I was not happy! When I look back now though I see exactly why they fired me. I was treating it as a job to fill in time. I was not interested in it at all but I had no idea of what I would ideally like to be doing. My boss must have seen my lack of enthusiasm and knew I didn’t really want to be there. It was a dead end job that would not have taken me anywhere and I knew that and yet I stayed there for over four years! To cut a long story short I did figure out what I really wanted as I was hunting for another job and I started a Motor Mechanics apprenticeship. I loved the work and recieved an award for excellence when I finished. Talk about a turn around! Life was once again interesting and enjoyable. I went on to start my own workshop and would still be there if my body could keep up. Sure beats that job I was fired from!

 Wouldn’t it be good if we could see that door open when the other one closes? I think alot of the time we get caught up in the emotion of it all and fail to see the next door or it is too far away to recognise. A little bit of faith is a good thing here. Faith that there will be that opening door, faith that in time something positive will come from the situation. Instead of burying our heads in the sand and blame everyone else for what has happened I think we need to focus on moving forward and be on the lookout for the next door that opens. When I first injured my back I used to lie in bed at night and get myself so worked up about what I was going to do to support my family, what I am going to do if my back doesn’t improve and I would often not be able to sleep and would feel all my back and leg muscles tense up. In the morning I would be like a bear with a sore head! I was suffering from sleep deprivation, I was in more pain than when I first went to bed and the poor kids where getting an earful for looking at me the wrong way and thankfully Belinda didn’t leave me. Luckily I recognised this self-destructive behaviour early and pulled myself out of it. Instead of worrying I decided to do something about it. I had always thought a website to help DIY mechanics would be a good idea so instead of just thinking about it I did it. I had no idea what I was doing but so far things are looking promising. So out of what I thought was a hopeless situation came another opportunity that had I not given it a go I would have never known how much it helped turn my life around.

 I sincerely hope that if you are reading this and are waiting for your next door to open that you can apply a little bit of faith and continue on looking for it even when it seems very far off in the distance. Out of nothing can come so much if you have your eyes open and an open mind. If I can successfully run a website then you can surely do anything you put your mind to as well!

Update : Autofix.com.au, the website that we started for DIY mechanics is still going strong and growing every month. We rank No. 3 for online auto repairs in Google search which is great considering I didn’t know a computer from a t.v. set 12 months ago! Just goes to show if you put your mind to it you really can achieve anything. Believe in yourself and you will be astonished at what you can achieve.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Positive Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.