I was on my way to a therapy appointment downtown the other day. And yes, before you judge, I believe everyone should have a therapist in their lives. So, I was on my way to my appointment and my GPS instructed me to turn off on a completely different street miles from my normal route. And yes, before you judge, I was using my GPS (I call her Gerty) to get to a place that I’ve been to many times. I believe keeping one more piece of information, in this case directions to a place, in my already overcrowded brain isn’t practical so I use Gerty a lot.
So, I hear the Gerty tell me to turn in 0.5 miles which is way before the highway that I normally take to town. My first thought is, I put in the wrong address so I check it and it’s fine. My second thought is that there’s some sort of accident or blockage on the normal route and she’s trying help me avoid it so I checked that and it looked fine. My third thought is, Gerty is confused or is purposely trying to make me late for my appointment. I don’t know if yours has ever done this to you but I’m convinced my GPS occasionally sends me in circles or on a less than optimal route just to mess with me. Gerty is generally very efficient but she does have her darker moments. Now, I was not running late to start out with but I didn’t have a lot of extra time for Gerty’s possibly slightly malicious plan and I reasoned I know what I’m doing so I made up my mind to continue my normal route.
I fully intended to ignore her advice until I was almost on top of the proposed early turn and something inside of me said, trust Gerty, she’s got your back. So, I turned.
The route she took me was entirely one lane country roads and I’m thinking, what have I done?? I’m going to be late and stressed out when I get to my appointment. It was a couple of minutes before my calmer, less reactive brain kicked in (thank you therapy) and I relaxed into the drive. It was a beautiful summer day with the sun sparkling off the trees. I could hear the wind and the birds. There wasn’t another car in sight and the serenity of the scene made me smile. I’d never seen this area before even though I was only 10 miles from my house. Gerty wound me around the area, taking several turns until she found my way to a main road that got me back on more familiar territory. I got to my appointment on time, I got to see a new area, the drive was beautiful and it allowed me to appreciate the moment.
It occurred to me afterwards that this happens a lot. Someone suggests to us that we go in a different direction with our business or our life. Our first reaction is either pride or distrust. We tell ourselves that we know best what’s good for us or our business. We don’t immediately trust others to have our best interests at heart and we’re weary of any advice. Sometimes this is true. After all, we know ourselves and our businesses better than anyone else.
But sometimes we are so focused on the path we’ve chosen that we’re blind to a better way. We steamroll through to get to our planned destination without pausing to consider that there’s many ways to get to the same end. We bulldoze our way through challenges and roadblocks we encounter along our chosen path and we pat ourselves on the back for finding a way to keep driving down the same road. We’re so focused on getting back on the road we’re on that we can’t see that there might be a different road that gets us there without those roadblocks.
When I arrived at my appointment, I again checked the traffic flow on my phone’s map program and realized that there was indeed a huge backup on the route that I would have taken had I not listened to my GPS.
Turns out Gerty did have my best interests at heart and only needed my willingness to have an open mind and listen to her advice. Thank you Gerty!
Another article you might like;
Do you have trust issues?
https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/do-you-have-trust-issues/
About Eliza
Eliza is an experienced pet business owner with a specialty in pet sitting and dog walking businesses. As The Pet Business Coach, she offers coaching and resources to aspiring or current petpreneurs. She maintains an awesome blog for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/ and a practical podcast to help pet business owners excel and drive their business forward. Eliza and her husband live in the Appalachian Mountains with their furry and feathery family including cats, goats and chickens. Visit her website at www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.
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