Little Setbacks, Little Victories

October 21, 2018

Initially, I thought quitting my job would be the hard part. I didn't realize that was just the beginning. It's been a little over two months. I still haven't found my groove yet. And I have I just barely started back up on my dissertation.  I am not where I want to be, but I'm getting on track.  When you are on a new journey it's so easy to second-guess your decisions you made the moment things start going off course. These last two months have been full of that.  Lately, things that were not part of my plan keep popping up. The car stopped working, unexpected bills, not making the money you expected to make, and having to get a new dissertation chair.  I was starting to wonder that I got it wrong.  Then, something changed. 

At the end of last month, my college friend, my fraternity brother got married. His wedding was just a manifestation of all of the changes he had been through. If you saw him, you wouldn't know his story had lots of valleys; you wouldn't know he went through a career change…but I did. He went to college to be an engineer; he got a job after college.  Yet, he was missing something.  Then he changed careers and found a better work-life balance.  He was not just living; he was living in his purpose. And he unintentionally reminded me little setbacks can be setups for little victories.

When I started this journey, I thought living in my purpose would lead to nothing but victories.  Unfortunately, just because I feel like I am living my purpose, it does not mean I am not going to have setbacks.  As a matter of fact, I will probably face more setbacks attempting to live out my purpose than any part of my life. For me, I learning to embrace this is the next journey in my faith walk.  If I truly believe my purpose is to teach at a community college and work with churches, I must trust the process.  (I am rolling my eyes as I type this.)  For the past year I had been telling college students who were uncertain about college and internships to trust the process. And now, I am having to take my own medicine and I do not like the way it tastes!  But it makes sense.  I cannot think of this journey as a sprint...it is a marathon!

I started running long-distance when I was 14.  I was not great when I started; I was horrible.  I thought I would be great just because I simply wanted to be great.  Reality was I had to fight if I wanted to become great; I had to learn to be disciplined, and I had to be willing to sacrifice things to reach my goal.  I reached my goal by creating milestones along the way.  Sometimes I did not get to my milestones right away.  I hit setbacks.  I had a lot of setbacks!  And each setback helped me learn how to get closer to milestones.  My milestones became my little victories. Over time I got better; I eventually found my groove and became a distance runner. 

I will have to do similar things in this journey. I will need to become disciplined; I will need to identify efficiencies that fit this journey.  I will also need to figure out milestones for this #ProjectDissertation.  For this journey, my setbacks have been that I have not accounted for the little victories along the way.  This road to complete my dissertation and teach full-time as a community college professor is a marathon...I am building my endurance to finish the race!

I hope as you finish reading this, you are encouraged to continue in this journey with me.  Please consider subscribing to this blog and keep up with my journey. 

Till I write again,
Elgrie Jones Hurd III
-Grand Canyon University Doctoral Candidate, General Psychology - Industrial and Organizational Psychology Emphasis