Turn Around

Sometimes the only thing holding you back from moving forward is you not turning around.

Sometimes I like to wear sunglasses. I am a thrifter to the core, so this was a solid thrift!

I use the GPS a lot more these days, despite me always complaining about how inaccurate it is for Kenyan roads (especially the unmarked roads).

You will always find me complaining about it even as I use it (hey, galfriends!) Ha!

The main reason is because I am almost always getting re-routed by Minister Google Maps and that sucks!😂

I digress. I want this to be a short and spicy blog. Short enough to keep you here but spicy enough to challenge your ways of functioning.

I had a tough assignment in the recent past from my mentor. She asked me to take up a project that I did not like. So I procrastinated for about 2 long weeks, avoiding all the assignment alerts and making myself a busy-body of sorts.

On further introspection, I realized that I did not want to do the assignment because it demanded me to dig back into old books and those books held memories I did not want to encounter again. I had conveniently forgotten to clear out a whole deck of literature because it connected me to a person I no longer was. But my current assignment needed me to dig back into those same books.

“I cannot postpone this thing any longer. I need a report by the end of this project.” I would tell myself every night as I guilted myself out of a rut.

So, I went back into the depths of time and I held myself into account. I went through tonnes of literature that I did not want to cover, but had to because, accountability.

I dug deep and although that sucked, I came up with a great report, my mentor was happy but most of all, I broke through.

Break-through. Ah, I feel that word so strongly, so suddenly.

Sometimes the reason you are seemingly stuck in a place you do not want to be is because you are not willing to turn around, retrace your steps and possibly face the hard fact that perhaps the route you chose yourself was wrong from the very beginning.

Sometimes the axe you picked up was not the right kind for the tree you are about to cut down and so you need to bend back down and pick up a new axe. Sucks to be wrong, yeah?

But what sucks more than being wrong is being stubborn in a way that is clearly not working.

But what sucks more than being wrong is being stubborn in a way that is clearly not working.

That’s it. That’s the post.

Reach back into your mind. Go back to your old neighborhood. Retrace your steps. Review your ugly break-up. Check in with your bank manager who looks at you a bit funny these days. Do the ugly, uncomfortable stuff that agitate the comfort of your stagnation. Turn around. Re-route (Hey, Siri!).

Be wrong now but say, “I am so glad I changed course when I did.”

Short term loss. Long term gain.