Or several. This was my experience last week. I was looking forward to a weekend getaway with some girlfriends. As I headed out the door, I couldn’t open the garage. I went back inside to get my partner who opened the door. As I tried to start my car, no go. Back in again to ask for help in clear desperation and exasperation, unfortunately interrupting a conference call. Once he jumpstarted the car, I headed off only to hear beeping. I plugged in the passenger seatbelt, no change. I decided to stop at my local car repair shop to get the beeping checked. They ran a diagnostic, finding nothing wrong other than a low battery. I sensed this wasn’t the end of the story.

I returned home to borrow jumper cables in case the car should stall again, then back on the road with a plan to stop at an Autozone for a battery check. By some stroke of good fortune and the help of Google, I found a Subaru dealer on the same route and I stopped in just before their service department closed. While they couldn’t see me, a service rep successfully reset my trunk. It had somehow gotten stuck, causing my car battery to die in the first place which was signaled by the beeping.

Four hours after leaving my house, I arrived in Philly (two hours later than planned), but thankfully in time for dinner. Did I mention that as a city girl, I’m not much of a driver. This experience highlighted the unexpected nature of our experience.

The Journey as a Metaphor for Our Life Path

My road trip exemplified what many of us experience in our career search process. We start out going in one direction, get side-tracked (if there’s a layoff) or re-routed (perhaps when a new opportunity comes up), encounter challenges along the way (such as nasty office politics or an unsupportive boss), then eventually we make it to where we wanted to head later than we anticipated with some bumps and bruises along the way.

I explore this unpredictable process of finding your life path in depth in my new book, So, What Do You Do? The Authentic Alchemy Path to Find Who You Are, and just how uncertain, yet exciting this process can be.

Our work is to make sense of our individual and unique journey as we gain more clarity around what’s important to us, where we might struggle and how we can step into our power and find the success, impact and income we desire.

My little car trip perfectly illustrated this experience. I’d barely gotten out of my house before I was stopped dead in my tracks unable to leave the starting block without my partner’s assistance. No sooner had I left when I had to return home, showing how we often take two steps forward, then one step back.

By some stroke of luck, I found a car whisperer with the knowledge I needed to fix my situation after another supposed expert was unable to help me. I had intuitively sensed the trunk issue all along since I heard clicking just before the battery died, and made the game day call to stop at the Subaru dealer. I hoped (fingers crossed) they would solve the problem.

We are constantly growing!

This showed me the power of trusting my intuition and persisting until I know something has been resolved. After all, technology is not flawless, it has bugs and sh*t breaks down. So often we need to learn tricks and strategies to identify what’s going on and find a way through.

The upside to my mishaps? A free water bottle, cup of hot cocoa (blessed chocolate!) and a clean bathroom on my pitstop. A silver lining after all. The rest of my weekend was delightful, except for almost slicing my finger off trying to cut a flagel.

That, and an utter email system fiasco earlier that morning which required me to switch platforms altogether. I hired a consultant to help me migrate which is why you can now admire my beautiful new email newsletter.

So much for uneventful, it’s been a nonstop series of adventures for the past few weeks. And so, I’ve decided to shake things up a bit intentionally to try more new things.

In the spirit of experimentation, I invite you to read more about the rest of my experience, including more inspirational suggestions, thoughts on Mercury and Mars retrograde and most importantly, an exciting book announcement directly on my blog (continued below).

Both Mercury and Mars are Retrograde – Oh My!

All these recent occurrences felt like the rug was pulled out on me unexpectedly. Perhaps you’ve noticed some similar unexplainable mishaps recently. Not that I live my life by the stars, but I do find astrology fascinating and periodically insightful in highlighting larger themes that may be going on in the world which can help to place things in context. Maybe it’s not just me, the world actually IS going crazy?!?!

I choose to look at every experience as a learning opportunity. This principle, that we are all constantly facing challenges at every turn, sits at the heart of the Authentic Alchemy Path, my framework for navigating change and creating a meaningful life and uncover fulfilling work aligned with your values to feel authentic and make an impact. The question is, how do we choose to respond to challenges? Will we rise up in the face of adversity and uncertainty to move forward and grow or will we shrink back and hide, afraid to face change? The choice is ours.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Here are some of the lessons from my star-crossed weekend of mini-crises turned fun getaway:

• What’s the hurry? Slowing down can help us be present to what’s really going on and uncover creative solutions. We will eventually reach our destination with patience, while pushing to get ahead only creates unnecessary stress and anxiety.
• Trust yourself and the process! When you follow your instincts and intuition, you are often led to a solution. Don’t over-rule your inner knowing because it’s trying to tell you something.
• Where are your meant to focus? By paying attention to the signs, you can avoid potential mishaps. (Note to self: knives are sharp, so be careful). Notice what is going on around you by being present and grounded.
• Do you know where you are headed and what you need? Are you in the right place or do you need to start over, upgrade or replace what you have. Do you have the right tools to move forward? Sometimes we need to double back and start with a fresh perspective. That’s not always a bad thing if it helps us to move forward with more clarity, which will get us where we want faster.

Embracing Change

Discovering that my email platform was sunsetting functionality I had relied upon gave me an opportunity to start over. So much for “set it and forget it.” I chose to rebuild – out with the old and in with the new. I now have the unanticipated new project to convert all my email marketing processes. Hence, this new format coming to your inbox.

In the spirit of navigating change and uncertainty, I will be trying to change more things up by experimenting on multiple fronts. For instance, rethinking how I communicate, share information and talk about my work. This is all in service of the ongoing evolution of my business. Given that Mars (who rules structures and war) won’t be out of retrograde until late February, I’ve decided to move my book launch to March to give myself some breathing room. You will still receive plenty of updates and insights before then. And thankfully Mercury retrograde (ruler of technology and communication) just ended by the time you receive this update.

Our choices must by necessity respond to the universe and our current situation. I forgot to mention the cherry on the cake. Just as I was going to send my final book files for printing, I found a typo in an important diagram, so it went back to the designer for another edit. She then got sick and disappeared for a week in radio silence as I bit my fingernails. The proofreader I hired for my manuscript which went through multiple rounds of edits was only focusing on the copy, so this was my oversight. Since I’ve learned from experience to play to my strengths. Focusing on the details is definitely not one of my favorite skills to rely upon, so I’m grateful for my book team.

Sharing a little of my unbridled enthusiasm and excitement for what is to come, here is a sneak peak of the book cover so you can see what’s coming.