A loud crash of thunder echoed through our hotel room.
I jumped out of bed and ran to the window and sure enough…it was raining cats and dogs, thundering like a drum line, and lightning like a strobe light.
UGH. Of course….
The one day we had planned a fun excursion on our trip in Cancun Mexico, it was terrible weather.
I checked my phone and sure enough…we were still scheduled to go out…deep sea fishing.
By the time we got to the wharf, the thunder and lightning had subsided, but it was still windy and rainy. I was with my husband, and two of our friends.
We took a deep breath, embraced the rain, and boarded the tiny fishing boat.
As we drifted out to sea, the swells began to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
We had to hold onto something otherwise we were going to go overboard.
We were cold. Wet. We were kind of scared…And began to get seasick..
Now they say if you are feeling seasick, you are supposed to lock your eyes fixed on the horizon line.
If you focus on that, even though you may feel sick, it’s supposed to help bring you back to equilibrium.
That day, I couldn’t even see the horizon.
The waves were SO BIG that the second I caught a glimpse of the horizon line, it was being blocked by a large swell.
We felt so sick, we ended up having to turn the boat around early and cut our fishing trip in half.
I was so disappointed, and I felt like we had failed and also wasted our money.
Once we set our feet on solid ground, we immediately felt better.
Relieved.
Can you relate?
For you, my guess is for the last couple of years, you’ve felt a lot like I did – being tossed around by the large waves, not even feeling like the horizon is in sight.
COVID has really beaten us up – in the same way these waves were beating us up on the ship.
And if I were to take a guess….you might be feeling a little burned out.
- Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin at home or at work?
- Busy but not productive?
- Saying yes just to please?
- Is it possible you might be a bit of a workaholic?
- If you’ve ever set unrealistic expectations for yourself?
If you said yes to any of these things, you are not alone.
Here is your gentle nudge: PAUSE.
Reflect on your horizon line.
Can you see it? Even a glimpse?
What is truly important in life?
It is through our greatest challenges that we build our greatest strength and learn our most valuable lessons.
That day, the lesson I learned was that although I so desperately wanted to last the entire time, it was okay for us to cut our trip short.
Sometimes in life, you need to be okay not completing something…even if it means you’re out some money like we were in the case of this fishing trip.
We would have been miserable if we had continued.
Here is a great article that explains this bias we have.
It’s called the Sunk Cost Fallacy which is our natural tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
Don’t let yourself fall into this trap.
Article: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/
Oh and by the way, we ended up catching a small fish on our way back into shore.
So the moral of the story?
Even if you feel like you’re being tossed and turned by giant waves, remember to focus on the small wins along the way.