When your back's against the wall...

The serenity prayer…most of us are familiar with it (even if we can’t quote it verbatum).  I fall into that category myself, so I googled it (sorry Mom – I know you’re disappointed I had to look it up!  )

This week, I put that prayer to the test.  Some of you already know that my job is extremely challenging. This week it was worse than ever.  It was month-end, with the new abbreviated closing schedule Corporate has given us.  And after Day 1, my assistant came down with a type of viral stomach flu.  She missed the rest of this week.

When I get frustrated or stressed out, I am a cryer under normal circumstances.  I’m not particularly happy that I react that way, but it’s how I’m wired nonetheless.  So it caught even me by surprise that I didn’t have a meltdown when I received word that my 2nd-in-charge was going to be MIA for a couple of days.  Normally, I would panic as I received the call that my helper wasn’t going to be there to shoulder some of the work.  But somehow I accepted it for what it was – an unwelcome hiccup in the road that I had no control over.  I still had the same deadlines in place, and that was also something I couldn’t change.  If at the time I had realized she would miss four days, I might not have coped as well as I did! 

But at the time, I took a calming breath, said a mental prayer that God would help me get through it somehow, and then began to tackle one task at the time.  On Tuesday, I got up at 3:00 in the morning, hooked up the laptop, and began to work.  I didn’t go to sleep again until 10:30 pm THE NEXT DAY!  Yeah, I was awake for about 44 hours.  It wasn’t pleasant, but it had to be done.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have had our company’s month-end results completed on time so that they could be rolled up with everyone else’s at Corporate.  Corporate didn’t care what I had to do to make my deadline, they only expected me to make it.  No questions asked.

Last night I went to bed at 11:00 pm and slept until 7:00 this morning.  I rarely get 8 hours of sleep in one night, but let me tell you, it was some mighty good rest!!!  I feel like I can actually get some housework done today, which will make my husband happy too. 

We’ve all found ourselves at some point in our lives, where our backs were against the wall.  Fight or flight isn’t even a question…we don’t have the option to flee.  We have to dig our heels in deep and fight to meet the challenge head-on.

Thankfully, most of us don’t face unusual challenges every day.  But the next time life throws a curveball at you, stop and catch your breath.  Don’t worry about the things you can’t control, but rather put your efforts into what is in your control.  Focus on one task at a time rather than the big picture.  It might not be a particularly pleasant trip, but you will eventually come to the end of that journey and you will have come through a SURVIVOR!

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