My favorite greeting card of all time–received from a friend back in the late 70’s!–said this:
‘You are the ANSWER TO MY PRAYERS!’…(then inside) ‘You aren’t exactly what I prayed for, but apparently you are the answer!‘
Well…LOL!…that one still makes me smile, all these years later. Even more importantly, that message has played back in my mind countless times over the years, when I have found myself “praying for an answer” or solution to a problem, only to find myself looking squarely down the barrel of something entirely different than what I had imagined MIGHT be the answer. This has turned out to be the case more times than I can count.
For instance, not so many months ago, when I –a midlife woman of 50+years–was urgently looking for an answer to how to change my life and leave the “security” of my long-established career in the nonprofit sector (without committing financial suicide), so that I could finally start living a life with more freedom, creativity, and flexibility to set my own priorities, I had NOT imagined the solution that did indeed turn out to be the “answer to my prayers.”
Not only had I not imagined it, I was pretty skeptical (and more than a little snooty in my first reaction to what I was looking at). After all, I was twice the age and had several times the life and work experience (I told myself) of the young “upstarts” whose entrepreneurial success I was reading about.
“Upstarts?” I finally had to admit that young-enough-to-be-my-kids-or-not, these guys had created something (and made millions doing it!) that I had not even come CLOSE to creating in my life…and they were offering to show me exactly how to do it too. REALLY??…Geeeeeshhh. I at least needed to get over myself and pay attention…right? Right.
So I did pay attention. I got off my high horse and listened closely. They earned my respect. What they had to say–and to offer–was getting me excited now. “Is this real?”; “Can this be real for me?”; “Could I apply their system and everything they had to teach me to my own life and career goals, values, and priorities, and build the kind of life I want to live? Even in my mid-50’s?”
Well…the happy, mind-blowing, pinch-me, life-changing short answer is YES! This worked for me and it can work for you. So I urge you to TAKE A LOOK. And remember this: even if–at first glance–this doesn’t seem to be “exactly what you have been praying for”, it JUST MIGHT BE the answer.”
“The Answer To My Prayers…”: Hope For Midlife Career Crisis and Change
My favorite greeting card of all time–received from a friend back in the late 70’s!–said this:
‘You are the ANSWER TO MY PRAYERS!’…(then inside) ‘You aren’t exactly what I prayed for, but apparently you are the answer!‘
Well…LOL!…that one still makes me smile, all these years later. Even more importantly, that message has played back in my mind countless times over the years, when I have found myself “praying for an answer” or solution to a problem, only to find myself looking squarely down the barrel of something entirely different than what I had imagined MIGHT be the answer. This has turned out to be the case more times than I can count.
For instance, not so many months ago, when I –a midlife woman of 50+years–was urgently looking for an answer to how to change my life and leave the “security” of my long-established career in the nonprofit sector (without committing financial suicide), so that I could finally start living a life with more freedom, creativity, and flexibility to set my own priorities, I had NOT imagined the solution that did indeed turn out to be the “answer to my prayers.”
Not only had I not imagined it, I was pretty skeptical (and more than a little snooty in my first reaction to what I was looking at). After all, I was twice the age and had several times the life and work experience (I told myself) of the young “upstarts” whose entrepreneurial success I was reading about.
“Upstarts?” I finally had to admit that young-enough-to-be-my-kids-or-not, these guys had created something (and made millions doing it!) that I had not even come CLOSE to creating in my life…and they were offering to show me exactly how to do it too. REALLY??…Geeeeeshhh. I at least needed to get over myself and pay attention…right? Right.
So I did pay attention. I got off my high horse and listened closely. They earned my respect. What they had to say–and to offer–was getting me excited now. “Is this real?”; “Can this be real for me?”; “Could I apply their system and everything they had to teach me to my own life and career goals, values, and priorities, and build the kind of life I want to live? Even in my mid-50’s?”
Well…the happy, mind-blowing, pinch-me, life-changing short answer is YES! This worked for me and it can work for you. So I urge you to TAKE A LOOK. And remember this: even if–at first glance–this doesn’t seem to be “exactly what you have been praying for”, it JUST MIGHT BE the answer.”
What have you got to lose?