Saw this quote & visual shared by our bud @bigjoe yesterday, & it just stopped me in my tracks bc of how powerful it is.
It’s hard to find much out there that’s more challenging to overcome, than feelings of isolation! Thank you to all the folks who reached out after I shared this in “stories” who opened up in DMs about how this piece impacted you – some in a very positive way, some candidly telling me, they’d like to believe it, but they still feel so alone.
How many scenarios in life result in feelings of isolation? Being broken up with. The passing away of a partner. The loss of a job when everyone else from your team is still employed there. Not making a team or organization you tried out for when others did. Having a proposal you worked so hard on, rejected by a prospect. The list is a mile long.
And our human nature is to be hurt by the situation & for the isolation to cause us lower self-esteem, feelings of doubt, & obsessive “what could I have done better/what if that didn’t happen,” questions.
But I think the power of this quote, is that helps us realize that NOT getting our way w certain things…while they do lead to feelings of isolation, they may also lead to opportunities that are meant FOR us, that only we can experience on our own. What does that look like?
The person who’s broken up w, being able to take some time, travel & see parts of the world & do some deep soul searching & self-discovery. The person who’s let go from their job being able to start something of their own, or go down a completely different career path than the track they seemed destined to stay in. The person who doesn’t make a team, trying a completely diff sport or club, where they find they have a real talent for something they may’ve never known. And YES, I know starting these new things, alone, is NOT easy.
This sounds counterintuitive but just know: “In feeling alone, you are anything BUT alone.” We all feel isolated at times. But that isolation, if we take it as an arrow pointing us in a positive direction, can change our lives tremendously for the better!
