Using Pain to Focus on What Matters

Thanks to a comment one night on my Facebook status, I spent the previous night dreaming through what my life would be like without a job. It wasn’t pretty, I did NOT like it.

Whilst my brain might be a bit addled these days with ‘Severe Vertigo’, I still have the power to think, reason, create and succeed. I also have the fortitude to do things that others would see as un-climbable.

A Little Bit of History

In 1992 my life changed completely. My emotions spiraled downwards for about 2 years. Then I found the inner strength to lift myself out of the chasm.

For about 3.5 years after those two, I spent every day wearing a $100 suit and carrying a near-empty brief case to my local employment-office to look the part of the person I wanted to become. It paid off.  In mid 1996 I acquired a 6-week temp’ job in a government department. It was the ‘in’ I needed to start my way up the job-chain.

In 2012, after 14 years of shoveling, I found myself in a role that not only enables me to utilise every skill I have acquired, enhanced and learnt over the preceding 20 years: I continually find it is actually fun and suits me.

Back to the Future

So I focused my dreams last night onto what I would do to [1] fix my situation and head, plus what I would to [2] help a person whom I revere and respect immensely. Some days you need to focus on what matters, and not upon the things that hurting.

So I have TWO big projects to create and do over the next 11 months.
[1] Organise and participate in a 3+ person photo gallery. This will include the person I want to support, plus a few others whom I anticipate will want to be involved.
[2] Organise and participate in a 40+ person photo exhibition. Aha, you read right, forty people. There is a lot of work ahead of me for this project, yet it will be worth the effort.

Whilst you might think that this is a lot for any one person to do, I know I can do this. Plus hold down a 9-5 government job, PLUS do all the normal things I do.

Fortitude, strength, belief in self. Characteristics I have, despite what a few people believe or have seen of me.

So I am not quitting. I’m certainly not giving up. This is where I begin again. Thank you to those who didn’t believe me – you continue to strengthen me and give me the determination to achieve any goal I set of myself.

Those projects are not going to get themselves done. And my baby boy is not going to survive without my help.  It’s time to get off the couch, get on with life and do all I can to make myself better. I ain’t letting this one moment in my life tie me down or hold me back. This too will pass.

What are you doing today?