Stop and Find Your Footing When Life Feels Out of Control

Do you have a memory of running really fast as a child and the next thing you knew, you were looking at the ground or staring up at the sky because you fell down? You had lost your footing.
It was the middle of the afternoon yesterday and I felt like I hadn’t gotten a single thing done all day. I felt like I had slight case of vertigo and I also felt like my mind was messing with me. What’s wrong with me, I wondered.
I opened Facebook and read an article about how the Solar Eclipse on Monday affected people’s emotions and bodies. Ah, so that’s it. I could blame my lack of productivity on the universe! Hey, I’ll take it. Don’t judge me!
See, I was feeling like a failure until I found something to secure my footing on again. I understood that there wasn’t something inexplainable wrong with me. Other people were experiencing the same thing. Everything was going to be okay. When I went back to my work, I ended up getting more done in the second half of my day.
Winning = finding your footing.
On Saturday night I was behind the scenes of a video shoot for one of Urban Southern’s fall campaigns. When I arrived at the location, I realized I hadn’t dressed very practically for the scenes that we were shooting. That’s me, flying into things without asking a lot of questions. I’m quite sure you must be a planner type of person, so this kind of thing NEVER happens to you.
Back to the video shoot scene. I was trying to climb up over piles of bricks, concrete and rebar in oxford shoes with heels that I’m pretty sure were NOT designed for hiking. Besides watching where I was stepping, I was also making sure my cream, knit top wasn’t getting snagged on rebar or chain link fencing. It was a warm evening and I began sweating profusely.
Multi-tasking, trying to look cute, and trying not to fall on my face, I took a deep breath and focused on finding my footing.
I knew that if I first found solid footing, I would be okay.

Watching the playback of some of the video footage later, you’d never know that I felt like a hot mess in certain scenes, literally. I had done the right thing by slowing down to find my footing, one small step at a time.
Take a deep breath and find your footing today. It makes a world of difference. You’ve got this.
We’re climbing through this week together.
