A Season of New Beginnings
Life is cyclical. Each season of life brings new hopes, expectations, challenges, and growth. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”[1]
The past several weeks have been a season of new beginnings for me. After voluntarily resigning from my position as a police officer just over a year-and-a-half ago, I have been in a season of limbo trying to figure out the next step in life. The part-time job I held as a bank teller was great for paying the bills and helping to keep some sort of financial stability in our home, but it was not the job I expected to get after leaving the police force, nor did it line up with the passions and areas of interests I have pursued over the past decade. I had looked for some other potential job opportunities that would utilize the skill-sets I had gained as an officer, but even after having a couple of great interviews, I was not offered a position. Walking through those times of disappointment is another lesson for another day.
In the past two months, I have challenged myself to finally take the next step forward in several areas of my life instead of just keeping things on the back burner with the thought of, “Well maybe someday I’ll get to do that.” Three of the biggest things for me were 1: Participating in an eight-week life coaching group taught by my friend Hannah Abad with Prime Collaborative, 2: Finally starting this blog/website, and 3: Choosing to change jobs. These have challenged me to grow and become more creative and to constantly choose to shift my mental perspective to one of gratitude instead of giving in to the fear of the unknown.
In the middle of April, I got a call from a friend of mine offering me a position to be a chiropractic assistant at the chiropractic office I had worked at over a decade ago. It was the first job I ever held and was eventually the stepping stone into my career as a law enforcement officer. After weighing out several pros and cons and looking at where I am at this current season of life, I chose to accept the job offer. Even though there was excitement about the job opportunity, I still had to wrestle with the lies and ungodly beliefs that I was just right back where I started from and that the struggles and accomplishments of the past decade were for naught. Upon recognizing these, I had a choice: to believe the lies or to believe the truth of what God says about me. I have to choose to have the mindset of gratitude in this season of new beginnings and that the Lord is continuing to answer my prayers, even if it is not in the way I expected them to be answered.
Choosing to have the right mindset and believing the truth is not always a one-time-and-done thing. It is a constant, moment-by-moment, day-by-day choice. I have a tendency to overthink things and it can be incredibly easy to fall back into the mental trap that because this is where I started out at, that the past several years’ worth of experiences were for nothing. Or, I can choose to shift my perspective to one of gratitude and be thankful for all of things I have learned and the ways I have grown as a person this past decade. I can look at how those experiences made me the person I am today and the skills I now have to help this chiropractic office succeed in new and exciting ways. I can choose to be passionate about the new possibilities I have before me in this specific season of life and how this particular opportunity opens avenues of new growth and learning so that I can confidently make a positive difference and have a lasting impact in the lives of those I encounter.
The information shared and provided on Gratitude in the Chaos is strictly the opinion of the author and is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not to be taken as any kind of medical or mental health advice. I encourage anyone who has a medical or mental health issue to seek the advice of and/or consult with the appropriate professionals. Any use of and/or reliance you place on such information contained on this Site is solely at your own risk. For my full disclaimer policy, please click here.
[1] Eccl. 3:1 ESV.