Everything Prepared You For This Moment
And The Next.
I remember a time in my early twenties when I worked at a small insurance agency for six months. I was underqualified, did not go through official onboarding training, and was thrown to the wolves. I quit due to stomach-dropping anxiety.
Before I took the job at the agency, insurance was never on my radar. I was naive enough to take job descriptions at face value, and I was practically insurance illiterate. In hindsight, applying for every job on Indeed that fit my limited skillset, something I considered insignificant, created a sequence of events that led to a life of much more value.
After quitting, I faced a few employment gaps and took random jobs like daycare worker, school bus attendant, dental office, and even a phone receptionist for a pest control company. I was either awful, indifferent, or mediocre at just about all of them. Growing tired of being financially dependent on my parents and experiencing an emotionally traumatic year I desperately wanted to escape.
“What was something I could do if I had more training and may even enjoy it?” I would say to myself.
Immediately I knew it was insurance.
I enjoyed being able to answer a customer’s question confidently without sounding like an idiot. I took pleasure in educating them on the little I did know. If it were not for my short time at the agency, I would have never found another job at a brand-new agency with a much more sympathetic environment that helped me get my P&C license and my life insurance license. If it weren’t for my getting my life insurance license, I would have not gotten another job at an even bigger company. That allowed me to buy a car and live on my own. If it weren’t for both of those jobs, I wouldn’t be at my current job which not only pays more but is a better fit than the first two. If it weren’t an emotionally tough experience just a few months from when I got my license I would have never received the best lesson yet of living on my terms and not for the comfort of others, which led me to pick up a pen and begin my writing career. I think you get the point.
This experience is not limited to me. People do what they see nary daily, but those actions cause extraordinary results. Even in moments of an existential crisis like I mentioned before can one look back and understand that the experience taught a valuable lesson. A lesson that if missed may have delayed growth, which in turn would have delayed some important decisions. I look at it as life preparing you for the next moment. Building blocks not only make up externally but internally.
This Moment
As you sip on your coffee or depending on what time of day you read this, your evening cocktail understand that you were prepared for this moment.
The reason you are a team lead at your job is because of that anxiety-inducing experience a few years prior where you got chastised by customers and management alike for not handling the boatload of cases efficiently with no prior knowledge given to you about what you’re doing.
The reason you were able to put a down payment on your home is because for two years straight you got up at 5:30 am and traveled two hours to work on public transportation making $11 per hour. You stuck with it and climbed the ranks.
The reason you have a variety of healthy friendships is because after having a lack of boundaries and compromising who you are at your core you’ve learned the key to healthy relationships is by being your authentic self and letting people choose you instead of contorting yourself to keep them.
Your Next Moment
All the above situations sucked, and I don’t doubt you’re glad they are over. You may not be around the same people or work environments as before, but if it were not for those experiences there is a possibility that you would have not made some life-changing choices that benefited you long term. Your past prepared you for your present so that you can sustain your current successes whatever that may be for you.
What about now? Well right now no matter what your current circumstances are, whether it be money issues, home issues, work issues, or school issues the choices you are making, and the experiences you are living through are getting you ready for something on a larger scale.
This isn’t about being rich or quitting your 9–5. At this moment I encourage you to ponder over the things you have once only hoped for that you now have. Be grateful for the choices you made and the circumstances you lived through that caused a snowball effect on your accomplishments. Taking a moment to meditate on your accomplishments I believe can also reassure you of your capabilities, leading you to look toward the future with more hope.
