Every morning when I wake up, and every night when I lie down to sleep, I am keenly aware of my strong desire to control my life circumstances. I am also fully cognizant that some things are just plain out of my control.
Uncertainty leaves me feeling powerless, and it drives me crazy! Sometimes I get chest pains from anxiety. My stomach feels queasy, my breathing is shallow, at times I feel lightheaded, and numbness grips my entire body. On the inside, my emotions are like an unruly toddler who's throwing an all-out tantrum, evidenced by kicking, wailing, and stomping.
Let me be honest… I want control and I WANT IT NOW!
Today I'm feeling a lot like Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In fact, if I could sing, I would break into song and twirl around the house while throwing things about and knocking things over. I am frustrated, disappointed, angry, and filled with the kind of fear that comes with uncertainty.
You see, when you step out of your comfort zone and into the unknown, there is always risk involved. You do everything in your power to minimize risk before you step off the ledge and into uncharted territory, but sometimes it doesn't turn out the way you hoped it would. When that happens, you feel like you just got labeled as a bad egg, and you’re free-falling down the bad egg chute into the trash bin below, just like Veruca.
Am I a bad egg on a speedy ride to the trash heap just because I took a risk, stepped out, and didn't get the results I had hoped for?
Is that true? NO, IT IS NOT!
The fact that the risk I took didn't pan out doesn't make me a bad egg. I did due diligence for the things I could control, but I can't control what I can't control, and that's okay.
So, if you have stepped out of your comfort zone and it didn’t work out as you had hoped, stop listening to the lies that tell you:
*You should have known you couldn't do it.
*You never should have done it.
*Now see how foolish you look?
*What were you thinking?
*You really thought you could do that?
Those lies want to convince us that we are bad eggs, like Veruca, and we deserve to be sent to the trash bin. But the truth is, taking a reasonable risk that doesn’t produce the outcome you were hoping for doesn’t make you a bad egg. It makes you brave!
Choosing to behave like Veruca if you don’t get what you want, now that just might earn bad egg status! Behaving like Veruca only leads to a rotten, stinking, lonely place.
I don’t know about you, but I don't want to be anything like Veruca! I want to be like Charlie. It may take a long time, and it may take a lot of searching, but I never want to stop believing that there is a golden ticket out there just waiting for me to find it. That means, like Charlie, I’ve got to press on with hope. I can't stop pursuing my dreams just because I didn't find the golden ticket inside this candy bar wrapper! I've got to believe in the possibilities that are still out there.
May we never allow our lack of control over our circumstances to label us as bad eggs. When things don't go as expected, we don't have to behave like Veruca. We can choose to behave like Charlie instead… joyfully, expectantly, believing in the possibilities yet to come!
Blessings!
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