Seeing Past

Whatever just happened is the worst thing that ever happened, and if don't get results today, I never will, and I must be incompetent and worthless if they chose someone else for that job instead of me.
 
Sounds a little over-dramatic, doesn't it? Yet, who among us hasn't thought at least one of those things at least once? And at the moment we are thinking them, they are not overly dramatic at all. On the contrary, they are hard and fast truths. Worse yet, they are truths that won't change. At least it feels that way when we are feeling them.
 
I am finding that one of the hardest things to do, in work and in life, is to see past the moment to realize that much of the time, the thoughts above, and many others like them, are not even close to true, and more important, not even close to permanent. And that some of the time, these moments are actually the ones that propel us forward to things we can't even see.
 
When you're out of work, it very quickly becomes hard to see yourself working again. Not only are you surrounded by the new shape of your days, you have nowhere to picture working. And you are faced with places where you try to picture yourself working, but have to give them up when resumes and interviews don't work out. If you could see past, you'd see a place where you do land, and how it turns out to fit quite well with the rest of your life.
 
When you are working, and things change, it becomes very easy to believe that change will be dire--and unchangeable--and that what seemed good will be bad and what seemed workable will be impossible. If you could see past, you'd see that sometimes rules are just guidelines. That sometimes the unchangeable actually can be changed.
 
It's a little like that "hindsight is 20/20" thing. Most things end up looking better after the fact than they do while we are experiencing them. The challenge, then, is to find some of that 20/20 hindsight while we are in the moment. To stop and see past to the good that will come out of what feels awful right now and the strength that will come from what feels like weakness right now.
 
We do all sorts of exercise for ourselves-- from the elliptical for our bodies to crosswords for our brains. Perhaps it's time for some eye exercises. So at least once in a while, we are able to see past.