Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start.
It’s Monday, and you know what that means. Back to the old grind. For some of us, that grind is a lot more demanding than others. But, at least for now, it’s our chosen way of making a living. Some days we have to remind ourselves that we once dressed up and put our best foot forward to get this job. Hopefully this won’t be one of those days, and we’ll be reminded instead of why we wanted this job.
I think we all go through the range of emotions with any job. There are days when we love it, and days when we wonder why we even got out of bed. It’s the same with most things in life. Relationships can be that way. We start off trying not to do or say the wrong thing, hoping the other person will respond positively toward us. Hopefully, after twenty or thirty years, we still feel that way.
But there will be days when we wonder if it was all worth the effort. I’m not just talking about jobs and relationships. Anything we’ve ever wanted, that we built up our hopes to achieve, will have its ups and downs. It could be that way with a new car. You love it until the first time something breaks. Or that business you’ve been building. There will be days when you wonder if it’s worth the effort.
But, until you park that new car on the curb and leave it to gather rust, anything that breaks can be fixed. In the insurance industry, they like using words like “totaled.” That basically means it’s wrecked to the point that it’s not financially economical to make the necessary repairs. That doesn’t mean the repairs can’t be made. Just that the insurance company chooses not to do it.
Every day, there are people browsing through junkyards all across the nation, looking for that old car that somebody walked away from decades ago. It’s banged up. The fenders are smashed. Parts are missing. It’s a pile of rust. The windows are all broken, the interior is gone, and to all the world, it’s junk. But to that one person, it’s a thing of beauty, just waiting for somebody to bring it back to life.
One of my dreams is to have a garage big enough to restore an old pickup truck or VW bus. Or both. After all, when the first one is finished, I’ll still have all those tools and the time to tackle something new, right? I don’t necessarily have all the skills to do that, but I can learn anything. And what I can’t learn, I can hire out. I just appreciate old cars and I believe just about anything can be restored.
That’s a dream I’ve had for a long time. And quite honestly, I’m no closer to that goal today than I was twenty years ago. But, just as an old car can be restored and made new again, so can our dreams. All it takes is a little loving care, and we can put those dreams back on the road as well. And if we do it right, they’ll be even better and stronger than they were on the showroom floor.
For the past two weeks, my lower back has had me just about crippled. Just getting out of a chair and taking a few steps is painful and slow. And I know it may never be as good as it once was, but I refuse to accept that this is as good as it’ll ever be. There are things I can do to make it better. There may be things the doctor can do. But giving up is not an option. This body has a lot of good years left in it.
And the same is true of most things in life. If your job sucks, do something about it. If your relationship is on the rocks, work on it. If your car is messed up, fix it. And if you can’t because the repair expense is bigger than your bank account, earn a little more.
Granted, some problems just can’t be fixed. There will be times when the best option is simply to walk away. Find a different job, get out of a toxic relationship, or trade in the old car. And sometimes, you find that the dream you’ve been working toward just no longer excites you. That’s okay. Just make sure it’s your decision, and not something you reluctantly accepted.
Dreams, like old cars, can be brought back to life any time we want. All it takes is a renewed commitment and a little effort. Find the value in those dreams – the job, the relationship, the old car, the new life. Fix what’s broken and polish up what’s still good. It may not look like much right now, but just think how beautiful it’ll be in the end.
That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!
© 2019 Dave Glardon – All rights reserved
Dave Glardon 