Tag: gratitude

Target Reached and Lessons Learned.

25 August 2019.
Actually, that headline probably should be “lessons learned and still being learnt” as I can never stop adapting and assimilating to change. I will list some important ones I have discovered though:

  1. You can get what you want or near enough to it, you just have to recognise that it might not be in the same form as you imagined.

I wanted the financial freedom of a full-time job or at least the ability to be resilient and manage with what I had: I now have this, but it is not in the industry where I was originally looking. Sometimes we do not see what is right in front of us as we are still focused on the original plan, therefore flexibility is key, as is the willingness to forgo endeavours which are not panning out as hoped.

New Life can follow hard times.

2. Gratitude is everything.

Being grateful helps to keep life in perspective when we don’t find exactly what we want or exactly what we think we need. In my work life, I have returned to an industry (Quality, Safety and Environment Administration) in which I studied hard for several years before moving into community service. After two and a half years of trying to find community administration work, and studying hard in that sector also, I had to give up and go back to what I already knew…not for lack of trying, it is just because my financial situation dictated I must accept it.

I am grateful for the new and the old opportunities, grateful for the people I met in community work, grateful for being able to still learn new things in my new job, and grateful for my friends and family and relatively good health.

3. Keeping a light heart and re-finding my sense of humour is so very, very important.

Life can be hard, and as Nanea Hoffman (Sweatpants and Coffee 2015) states: “None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an afterthought!”

There is so much good and so many great things and awesome people in life, keep them close or at least keep the feelings within reach in times of trouble and stress. Learn the art of not worrying but being delighted and having a sense of child-like wonder.

4. Being present and living right here and right now can save your sanity!

The past should be for lessons and the future should be for pleasant dreams… not for regrets and nightmares. These are hard lessons and sometimes too easy to slip back to dwelling on what could have been done or worrying about what may never happen (or stressing about insignificant “stuff” that won’t matter in a few days/weeks/months/years).

5. Never think you have learnt enough.

Learning should never end. Being open to change, new truths and possibilities is exciting and prevents a stagnant mindset. Watch the ocean and the earth, everything is in constant motion, with flows and ebbs, even the rocks which are shaped by wind and water are in perpetual change.

5. Life is amazing, we should love it and live it as fully as possible.

Thanks for following my journey. I hope I have shared something which can help others.
Gabe 2019 (GPC)

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Staying Positive and Getting Through Disappointment.

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should”. ‘Desiderata’ Max Ehrmann, 1927.

Beautiful Nature- Honeymoon Bay, Southern New South Wales.

18 July 2019, Week 7.

Although I absolutely love the “Desiderata” and its message of hope, and especially the above passage telling us that we are important and valued, I am unconvinced about karma, that the universe knows what it needs and we have no say in the matter; that “folk story” that what you sow in the world, you will reap. To me personally, it feels a bit like dogma in that it makes excuses for bad behaviour or explains why good happens to bad people sometimes, or vice versa.

Oh dear, mostly I AM a positive thinker, but the old “universe has other plans” jargon is just not my cup of tea as I may be a born-again pragmatist! Although, I am a dreamer, and a creative, and just may have seen examples of ‘karma’ when the narcissistic office bully eventually gets caught out and is fired, or a megalomaniac despot world leader finally gets their just desserts and is toppled from their rule and sentenced for their crimes, don’t you just wish that ‘karma’ was consistent! In my life I have met some interesting people who have also told me that ‘karma’ can follow from one life to the next… so what they are saying is if you were mean and nasty in a past life, you will cop a beating in this life! Well, by this premise, there are some who are destined for some smackdowns in the next life!

Getting by in this life can seem very unfair when you try so hard and cannot seem to make headway, or you get stuck in a situation you just cannot see a way out of. I am beginning to believe that life is completely random, and the only continuity and stable environments are the ones found in nature which have not been influenced by man, and even then, the earth is constantly changing with impacts from moving forces such as weather, subsiding land and tectonic plate movements, animals, water and fire.

My own answer for getting sanely through this life with all its ups and downs is to search for the experiences, feelings and thoughts for which I can be thankful. These are things like my beautiful family and friends, times with my kids and grandchild making fond memories, or my ability to bounce back from adversity and regain optimism, or the quiet moments when I can look out at the ocean and see whales, dolphins and the vast ocean blue, or be in the country and listen to the birds, all the moments of absolute beauty in nature.

I am especially grateful that in my current job role, some of my gorgeous aged clients have shared with me their amazing stories of their childhood, sometimes telling of living through and escaping persecution from fascism, real horror stories of loss and deprivation, and how they learned to thrive again after experiencing war and evil. Or they tell lovely stories of how they met their partner at a local dance and the long-lived love they had, the jobs they did, the art they created, the communities they participated in, the problems they solved, the children they raised.  These are moments for which I am thankful.

I wish I could prove that the “universe is unfolding as it should” but sometimes there is no rhyme nor reason for what happens. Sometimes we need to realise that although we may be a very small part of this world and our actions can and do have an impact, or just maybe, our actions have no impact at all on the outcomes of our own lives. Sometimes we are responsible for our downfall or our uprising, not the universe, but also, sometimes, bad stuff really does happen to good people and good stuff does happen to bad people.

My solution is not to be fooled into false beliefs that it is meant to happen or that karma is out to get me, or reward me, or all those other beliefs outside of my own psyche. My answer is gratitude; learning from the past I have lived, and enjoying the hopes for the future, whether I have suffered disappointment, or experienced elation, I reckon I need to be grateful for right here and right now and know I am one of 7 billion survivors.

Gabe