Highs and Lows
I was out at a party in Hollywood and was hitting it off with an entertainment industry professional, I’ll call them ‘X’. Before I knew it we were exchanging details and ‘X’ was offering BIG introductions to some of the top 5 people I dream to have dinner with, well maybe 4 because I was talking to one of the 5! It was a crazy moment, wow talk about being in the right place at the right time. The stars were aligning!
There are many highs and lows on the journey of following your dreams. I’ve had my fair share of ‘out of this world’ extreme moments like speaking at a conference in my dream city New York, attending parties in Hollywood, mixing with world class movers and shakers, and island hopping around the Great Barrier Reef.
The let down
The next day – friendly text back and forth confirming the promised introduction from “X”. Days turned into weeks – nothing. All talk no action. Disappointment settled in. Then resentment… then I caught myself… because I know that resentment leads to me being cynical. Often the lows are brought on through disappointment; I thought it would look differently… I thought that this BIG opportunity would open a door and it would look like ‘this’… I thought I was being accelerated into my destiny then – bam, I found myself back, hidden away in Redding.
Let’s be real about disappointment
It’s so important to acknowledge the disappointment. If we ignore it, our subconscious starts building a mindset about people, we can harbour resentment which then leads to cynicism. Disappointment dulls the vision for our future and feeds into our unworthiness. This is how hopelessness sneaks into our life.
“Disappointment causes disconnection. We lose connection from God, relationships, our future and ourselves” (Ella Hooper, 2017).
This is what was going on internally. Firstly, the silence from “X” felt like rejection. “You’re not good enough to be promoted. Who do you think you are having all your dreams come true?” Secondly, offence slid in. “How rude of them, they lack integrity to follow through”. Offence can come from rejection or someone misjudging us. Getting offended at someone because they let me down is real, but staying offended will not serve me or them. In offence we begin to make up horrible stories of others, but it is really out of self-protection, and self-protection is a barrier to connection to our true selves.
Another growth opportunity
So instead of building a case against ‘X’ and making up stories of unworthiness about myself I decided to respond differently. It was yet another opportunity to grow in confidence in my own identity, become un-offendedable and un-rejectable. At the end of the day the Hollywood exec is not my source of security.
I needed to rise up and choose to trust that the best is yet to come, and trust that my destiny hasn’t forgotten me. I cultivated an inner world of joy and peace, my weapons to combat disappointment in my ‘seen’ world of ‘nothing happening’. I trusted that something was brewing in the unseen world and… there was something brewing! An opportunity that was a perfect fit for me came a few months later…
