How did we end up here?

My wife and I were discussing career paths last night. You know - where we were, where we are and where we want to be. We discussed the parts of our jobs that we like and don't like and a bit about how we'd like things to be. Neither one of us is particularly satisfied with our job at the moment - for a wide variety of reasons - and I began to wonder how it had come to this. How had we gotten to this point in our lives?

I remarked to my wife that, over the last three years, we had made choices - both individually and as a couple - and had been subject to external forces that had somehow taken our lives drastically off course. It's not that either one of us said or thought, "by the time I'm 40 years old, I will be..." but when you're dissatisfied with life and careers to the extent we are, you're drastically off course. Something has gone wrong.

In those past three years, we have experienced and survived the following:
- A disinterest in our marriage
- A near divorce
- Severe depression
- The loss of beloved pets
- Buying a new house
- Moving from the residence we occupied for 11 years
- A change in the overall leadership in our company
- Changes in the leadership of our individual departments
- The effects of a sluggish economy
- Having friends and mentors move away

We've been in our new house for just over a year now and the garage is still packed with boxes, the house is full of clutter, and we still can't seem to find anything. My wife asked me yesterday where our music CDs had gotten to and I couldn't tell her. I wasn't even sure if they'd been unpacked yet.

So, I've decided to take up a new mantra, if you will - positive action. From this point forward, I will no longer wonder how I got where I am and wallow in the wrongness of it, I will take positive action to improve the situation. I have already taken the first step, on the advice of my doctor, by joining the gym and sticking to it. Some of it will be difficult and I will have to break it into smaller chunks - I tend to look at the mountain rather than the individual steps it takes to reach the summit - but I will take positive action to change what I want to change. I will not fear the failure of not accomplishing what I set out to do, I will succeed in my pursuit of my goal.

So, I've taken one step... what's next? When I finish mowing the lawn, I will start cleaning up my office. By the end of the day, I will remember what color the carpet is.

Positive action. One step at a time.

Try and enjoy the here and now,
the future will take care of itself somehow.
the grass is never greener over there.
Time will wear away the stone.
-- Howard Jones, Life In One Day