Last week, Canada mourned the loss of one of its music icons, Gord Downie, to brain cancer at the “too soon” age of 53. I know I wasn’t alone when I threw on some Tragically Hip tunes to feature the soundtrack of my day. Instantly, I was absorbing the music and reminiscing of old times tied to those amazing sounds. As I was intently listening to my favorite Hip song, Wheat Kings, I was immediately paused in the lyric: “you can’t be fond of living in the past, ’cause if you are then there’s no way that you’re gonna last”.
A few weeks ago I was offered a job interview that I had decided to turn down. The job was in a department of government that, for as long as I can remember, had always interested me. I had turned it down because I was reminded that I am working at the right place. It was during that week that my family life became a little stressed over allegations against my aunt. I was at work when I had heard about the charges and I became emotionally triggered. Thankfully, I was able to immediately talk to a couple of co-workers about it. They knew me, they understood me and they listened. It became instantly apparent that “here” is the place to be and not “there”.
Fast forward to last week and I had had a really busy and tough day at the office. There was some negativity afloat and I just seemed to be susceptible to it on this particular morning. We all have work-life stress and we all have different ways to handle it, and on this day I wasn’t handling it the correct way. I blew off some steam to a friend who knew about my “dream job” interview. Sensing that I was very unhappy about my work she asked me if I regretted not going to that interview. I didn’t pause with my response.
Many of us make quick decisions without much thought and some, like me, take too much thought to make a decision. Neither method of decision making is the wrong way, we all have different mindsets. Regardless of our decision making speed, life continually presents us with more choice, sometimes even overwhelming choices when we are not ready, but we always have a choice. Our success is never determined by the wrong or right choices we have made in the past, it is only determined by our reaction to the results after we have made them.
So even after a really tough day at the office, did I regret not going to that “dream job” interview after having a really tough day at work? Not likely. I refuse to look back on past choices that I have made, I will instead focus on making more choices tomorrow and that right or wrong I know that today is not my destination and that decisions made in the past are not the template for my success.
RIP Gord.
Thanks, man, for sharing your brilliant mind!