“There’s no where you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…” – John Lennon

It’s peak construction season and almost everywhere you drive in my city, you will meet a detour, delay, or roadblock. While it can be frustrating as heck, especially when you need to be some place at a certain time, I’m glad my municipality prioritizes maintenance and upgrades of our infrastructure system. The severe flooding from a broken water main earlier this year in Calgary and Montreal demonstrates what can happen without the upkeep.

Isn’t life a lot like construction season? We go left when we should have gone right? Or we have a plan for how it should go and then something, or many things happen, and we end up taking a new route.

Sometimes, life, the Universe, God, whatever name you want to call it, sends us a roadblock to teach us something. Like the construction that was blocking the end of our driveway last week as our water and sewer system was upgraded. Heavy equipment and caution tape ensured I wasn’t taking my vehicle anywhere for several days.

Our city transit system only has runs to our area a couple of times a day and our distance to the city centre doesn’t make biking a viable option. Hopefully more environmentally friendly options are available soon but in the meantime, I wasn’t going anywhere in my own vehicle.

Even though hubby’s vehicle was accessible, I was feeling trapped.

I now view every situation as either a lesson or an opportunity. The heavy equipment blocking the driveway? I’m calling that my lesson in independence. It’s okay to ask for help from a neighbor if you need a drive to your dentist appointment. Or financial help from my hubby to pay a bill if I’m running short on funds. Independence is healthy but it doesn’t mean you have to tackle everything by yourself. After all, we are all in this together.

I’m at the age where I do a lot of introspection. I’ve likely lived longer than the time I have left. I’ve looked back at things I thought I wanted, directions in my life and career path that didn’t work out, but something better came along. My point is – we think we know the best route for us – but do we always? As humans, we have a linear view and we can’t always see the bigger picture.

Burnout has got me thinking a lot about where I’ve been and where I’m going. How many life decisions did I make that I ignored the signs? Or brushed aside the voice in my head or the gut feeling that told me something wasn’t right?

True story, my intuition strongly suggested I should not have the carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. Or how about when I sobbed before going down the aisle at my wedding to my first husband? My gut knew this person was not for me. Gosh, I wish I had of listened to that voice.

I think back to jobs I’ve held, the best and worst – the fun times, the not so fun times. My latest career choice was probably never suited to me. The education process was grueling, I faced so many adversities to achieve my accreditation, so much misogyny, the digestive issues, sleepless nights, stress and now this burnout. I wasn’t aligned. My intuition, or gut instinct, was giving me signals but I wasn’t tuning in.

For those who scoff at intuition, here’s another example of that inner knowing. I decided to wear new shoes for a long day of walking despite that nagging sensation that I would most likely get blisters. Guess what? I limped to the car and couldn’t wait to get some bandages on my raw heel. You see, the body just knows.

I’ve never mentioned my cause for burnout. In my research, I discovered there are several types and mine is caused by misaligned values. I’ve been told that working in an environment that doesn’t position with your personal values causes tremendous physiological damage to both mind and body. When the distress is ignored as long as mine was, the damage is severe and recovery is long.

Still, I have no regrets. There’s no need to look back on life with “if only” and “should haves”. All of these experiences have led me to this place and made me who I am. I’m stronger for it. And I have learned, maybe the hard way, that’s it’s time to listen to that voice inside my head. It knows what’s best for me. I’m trusting it will show me the way home.

Have you encountered roadblocks in your life? Leave a comment below.

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