You Rarely End Up in Life Where You Intend to Go

THOUGHT

“I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere I needed to be.”

― Douglas Adams

STORY

Throughout the last decade, I moved 8 times to 6 different cities before landing near Greenville, South Carolina, where I’ve been living the past 3 years. If I’m being honest, I had never even heard of Greenville until about a month before my ex-fiance and I made the move.

You could certainly say I never intended on ending up in this small-ish city with lots of engineering opportunities and southern charm. But here I am.

A few of the neat things that have taken place since then…

• I work for a pretty awesome company with some really cool peeps, mostly because I was laid off from my previous job when the US new nuclear industry took a hefty blow.
• I own a house next to a couple of top notch neighbors, all because my ex-wife decided “go big or go home”. At the time, I wasn’t too thrilled. Now? I’ve got my own home gym, a pool right down the street, and well, it ain’t too bad.
• Because of that oversized house, I’m now living with one of my best pals who needed a place to crash for a while near an airport. And that’s Greenville! It’s actually a pretty sweet home-base as far as airports go. It’s busy enough that there are flights just about anywhere but without all the insanity that comes with a major hub like Charlotte or Atlanta.
• And because my buddy’s now living with me, and we’re stuck during this pandemic, we’re moving forward with our own coffee brand, which will launch in the next couple of weeks. I love coffee, so I don’t hate where this ended up going.

As you can see, I’ve stumbled upon a number of great things in life. If you had asked me 10 years ago where I saw myself, I would’ve never imagined a life quite like this. It’s definitely in line with what I’ve been chasing, but it’s hardly the picture I had painted for myself way back then.

Sometimes you just have to go down a path and lean into whichever way the wind blows. I do often find that I rarely end up where I intended to go, but I always end up right where I need to be.

ACTION

1. Reflect back on where you are today. Are you where you want or need to be? If yes, awesome. If no, how can you put yourself on the right path?