My private practice is thriving and I’m doing really well. I’ve got plenty of clients and I’m not nearly as stressed financially. At one point I was working three jobs, and I’ve gone down to two. Now I’m ready to transition fully to focusing on my private practice and only work one job! Great news right? It totally is!
AND it comes with it’s own set of challenges. In order to work only one job that requires me to give up my second job. That means that I need to give up the clients that I’ve been working with for several months. Honestly that makes me really sad, to need to say goodbye to people who are working hard and making amazing progress.
It’s got me thinking how even good things can als be challenging and tough. Has it ever happened to you where something wonderful happens and it comes with its own set of difficulties? I notice that happens often for me. I get excited to go on vacation and do something fun with my family but then I get sad about the sessions that I’m going to miss with clients at work. I’m so glad my kids are going back to school and having more social interactions but it’s going to be tough getting back on a schedule and getting up early enough to get them to school on time.
This is something I come up against on a regular basis. I often expect that when things are good there will be no downside or no challenge attached to it. It’s a mindset I’m trying to shift out of. Because when I expect something to be nothing but wonderful and joyous and it turns out to be wonderful, joyous and challenging I can easily become disappointed or even feel as if I’ve done something wrong.
Having a realistic expectation is one way that I deal with this struggle. Another way I deal with it is by choosing what to focus on. In the first example of needing to leave my second job, I can either choose to focus on what’s good about that or focus on the sadness of leaving clients I care so much about. I don’t ignore the sadness or pretend it’s not there. I do acknowledge it and then I think of all the awesome things that this transition will bring to me (and hopefully to them as well!).
I believe joy is a spiritual practice we have to work at. For me, that means appreciating everyday moments: a walk with my husband, fishing with my kids on the Gulf Coast. It means not living in fear of what I could lose, but softening into the moments I have.
Brené Brown
I love this advice because it reminds me to find joy in the place that I am in. Joy can be found in simple moments and also in the bigger ones. I just need to remember that something does not have to be one hundred percent joyful to “count.” In fact, if I’m waiting for a perfect moment that only contains joy and no struggle or sadness I’m going to miss out on most of the joy in my life. Because in reality few things that happen to us bring just one emotion. We are complex and emotional beings and so we are likely to experience more than one emotion at a time. So here’s to showing up for all the moments…the moments of struggle, the moments when we are grateful, the moments when we feel triumphant and the moments when we are…
