This past year has been the most turbulent year I have ever experienced. It was genuinely chaos and messiness, everywhere. Everything that I intended for my life has gone out the window — I changed university courses, I took a minimum wage job and then resigned after a few months, but most of all, I’ve become a brand new person who is perhaps a lot more fearless than before. When your life is in slight havoc, you have no choice but to go with the obscurity of it all. When this sort of chaos arrives in your life you must be able to make decisions that you know are best for you, even if it means being judged for them.
The biggest decisions I’ve made were made instantaneously. Deciding to switch my university and my course happened due to an amalgamation of ridiculous things that had happened to me, but it took one moment of a person treating me rudely that pushed me over the edge. There comes a moment for me — and I’m sure for most of us — where we can just feel in the pit of our belly that this is not the life we deserve.
So here are some tips on learning how to trust yourself and your intuition
Sometimes you have to push things through, and other times you need to know when you’re being pushed around.
In many cases, many of us have to do certain things to survive and we have had no choice but to push through — this does not mean we should accept treatment that is anything less than respectful. An example of this is my family member who was put in a difficult situation of being exploited at work because he was afraid to lose his job and would not be able to provide for his family. He did not fight against the mistreatment.
I didn’t understand why my family member would allow himself to go through this — of course, I was ignorant to the fact that the job market was practically non-existent. After several years of enduring both mental and financial abuse from his boss, he took a complaint to the CCMA (The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation
People won’t agree with you, but they won’t experience your pain either.
When I decided to leave
Change can be emotional, even if you know you’re making the right decision.
In both of the decisions regarding my university and my old job, I had made them fairly quickly and without hesitation. It was only after the decision was made did I feel doubt and the sadness of letting go what once meant so much. I had to come to terms with the fact that what once was, no longer was what I needed it to be. We are allowed to expect more of our lives, ourselves and the people we put in our lives. Let yourself feel everything you need to feel. At the end of the day know that change may bring an end to what you know, but it brings new beginnings, which are far more exciting.
Let go of expectations and open your mind.
Expectations are the biggest killers of good things because we expect everything to be “great” and we forget to acknowledge the good. The new opportunities may come quickly, or you may have to work hard to create an opportunity, or maybe you left an old opportunity for a new one and you need time to adjust. Whatever the situation is, always be prepared for anything to happen, and do not think that everything will be easy. If you are happier in the prospect of what is to come, your decision will never be wrong.
(Featured Artwork: Tsjisse Talsma)
Just what I needed, sometimes you know it’s the right thing to do for you but just feel like you screwing everyone up, I’m also starting to realize that you eventually grow into putting yourself first