One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
— Henry Ford (American industrialist, business magnate, founder of Ford Motor motor company and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. He created the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, which profoundly impacted the 20th century).
I can think of two particularly transformative moments in my life, which were foisted upon me. The first one is around money. I was pretty much road kill after the 2008 financial crisis. I lost my shiny new lucrative position. I was only 6 months in when things began to unravel September 2008 and my personal fall out lasted about 3 years. Jobs were scarce to say the least, and the ones I could get were paying half the pre-2008 rate. I was able to hold onto my home and car, but I had to halt all other spending. In truth, I hadn’t exactly adhered to a proper budget to that point. My father was a teacher and my mother never worked, which provided nothing but the basics. So, fast forward to my adult years, now earning pretty good coin, and all I wanted to do was enjoy the fruits of my labor and do all the things I could never do growing up; eat out, buy nice clothes, travel to warm destinations, and spend money when I felt like it. Interestingly enough, after enduring 3 - 5 years of clamped down finances, I ended up with quite the nest egg. And now, I find myself spending only with careful consideration. Do I really need this new top or fancy boots? (Fashion’s a big weakness for me. I absolutely love the artistry, master craftsmanship and fine fabrics). I shop consignment now and I love the treasure hunting experience of it. I find high quality pieces for a fraction of the retail price, often from far off lands. It’s brilliant. If I hadn’t suffered the 2008 financial fall out, I would not have thought myself capable of (or even interested in) becoming a frugal and shrewd planner with my finances. The other unplanned transformation was around administration/spreadsheets/analysis/attention to detail at work. This has never been my strong suit. A couple of managers noted that I could be a bit more technical in my work. Yuck. I’m a big picture thinker, so I’m more concerned with strategy, creativity, innovation, thinking outside the box, which has served me quite well, frankly. But when I was out of work and desperate, I ended up taking the one high paying job I could get. I kind of knew this company was intense and expected equal focus on admin and customer service (which felt like two full time jobs). This ended up being my most unpleasant and challenging position to date. I was stressed to the max and had to sacrifice much of my personal life to keep up. I managed to adapt to the spread sheet world I was living in, and surprisingly, I excelled. I had no fun mind you, but I did learn how to appreciate data and mine the info for all it was worth. Fortunately, before too long, I was head hunted into a new, glorious company/role and life became bright and shiny again. The data/admin/spreadsheet thing stuck and as I’ve applied this skill set to my new job, I’ve achieved a whole new level of performance. What I failed to realize, before my dark days, was the power of data driven insights. Duh! Seems obvious now, of course. So! All said and done, two things I avoided like the plaque - the doldrums of strict budgeting and mind-numbing attention to tedious detail - have become two new super powers in my life. Go figure! Just sayin’ ;) Hugs. XO
Blessings,
Chatgirl
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