Glittery Moments

The trouble with glitter is it gets everywhere. It’s much like advice people give you when they are trying to be helpful or they don’t know what else to say. You know all the supportive advice you get when you have a break up, fail at your diet or something else crummy happens. That corny overused advice about getting back on the bull, horse, wagon or some other kind of transportation. Just try again. Well intended certainly, but when you’ve been bumped from the ride, getting back up on it is not necessarily your first desire. Even though most of the time our ego is bruised more than our bottom, and we’re covered in glitter from the fanfare that’s supposed to be uplifting and supportive. It still hurts. Sometimes, it is easier to just sit there covered in glitter and let the horse go graze for a while.

It’ll all work out, just sit steady in the boat.

I can’t tell you the number of times someone has said something like that to me when life has been bumpy and I’ve landed on my glittery bottom. All of us have had our share of falling down in life. Things have not worked out in our favor, someone took advantage of us for their own gain and well sometimes we just didn’t have enough to keep going. While these experiences are sometimes solid learning opportunities no one ever gives the advice of looking for a different ride. The advice is always about getting back on the one you were on and keep going, when actually we need to be looking for the rodeo clowns to distract the bull so we can make a run for it.

Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever felt pressured to take a job because it pays better or is a move up from where you are now? Or something came up at just the right time and it seemed better than what you had so you went for it? Yet when you did that, it was one of the worse decisions you’ve ever made? I have and sometimes it takes years to fix those types of situations.

It’s incredibly inticing to be offered more money and a bigger title, an office, access to the elite club. It feels good to achieve that opportunity. It’s what many of us work so hard to achieve … or so we think it’s why we work hard in that moment. Someone notices us, our work and there is fame, position, paycheck, and all the sparkly things that come with it is indeed shiny and pretty isn’t it? We’re supposed to want that always moving up potential so we stay focused on doing a good job. That motivation is used in a lot of different companies as the gold carrot dangling in front of us. Don’t you want this? Who would say no to more or what appears to be better? Not many of us.

More doesn’t equate to more sometimes though. Sometimes it’s just glitter that’s blinding us from what’s underneath.

The bigger paycheck doesn’t equate to more in our accounts. A new pair of sneakers and cute workout gear doesn’t mean we’ll lose weight. The new friends who acts all interested is really just wanting to steal your ideas as their own. The sparkle rubs off and we realize there really isn’t much more freedom or achievement of the goals we really want to reach. This is when we start to realize the bumpiness of the ride and it gets harder and harder to stay on the wagon. It’s then too we often realize the fans are cheering the side that will win, usually the ride, rather than us too. They’re interests are in winning for the bets they’ve laid down rather than your achievements.