“Has anyone seen Tracy?” , Peter asked as he popped his head into the office lunch room. He was greeted with some verbal responses of “no” as well as a few shaking of heads. “Well her car has been on for about ten minutes now and I’m just wondering if she’s forgotten”, Peter retorted. With my curiosity sufficiently piqued, I wandered inquisitively towards the office window to confirm for myself. There it was! Tracy’s 2001 Honda Accord sat idly in the driveway as the engine continued to run. It was a cold day, so the fumes from the exhaust were quite visible as they floated upwards nonchalantly into the clouds like a tourist with lots of time to spare. There’s something a bit odd about watching a vehicle you know has been running for a while just remain stagnant in one spot. On the surface, there is the paradoxical nature of the whole thing… a ‘running’ engine but zero distance covered. Usually a vehicle with a running engine is supposed to go somewhere. Digging a little deeper, that’s a lot of fuel being burned up for nothing. Quite wasteful if you ask me.
I couldn’t help but zero in on that second thought as I continued to stare through the window, Tracy still nowhere in sight. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about my life and began to hone in on a certain analogy. In this analogy, I was like that car in the parking lot. I thought about all the adversity and challenges life was currently throwing my way. I was starting to lose perspective. I was starting to lose hope that there will be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. As a result, I had started to feel down on myself. I had started to feel angry at my situation and the world at large. I had started to wake up everyday only focusing on all the things that were supposedly ‘wrong’ in my life. This brings me to the second part of my analogy. The challenges I was facing were like the fuel in that car. You see, me using my current challenges as an opportunity to get despondent and down on myself instead of using them as an opportunity to grow was like that car sitting idly in the parking lot burning fuel. The fuel is meant to be burnt in service of taking the vehicle somewhere… to meander through new roads…. to traverse new terrains and see sights yet explored. When you start to see your challenges as fuel, you realize that if channeled correctly, they are a valuable catalyst for growth. Significant growth does not happen in the zip code of your comfort zone. It never has. Growth happens where we are most uncomfortable, as long as we are able to make the paradigm shift and recognize that the place of adversity is no different from the place of opportunity. Failure to do this would be like a vehicle sitting in a parking lot burning valuable fuel instead of hitting the road to explore. Jim Rohn would always say “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.” In other words, don’t sit in the parking lot burning up valuable fuel idly. That’s right… every problem has value. Every problem has a lesson to teach. Every problem has a hand extended, inviting you to seize the opportunity to grow and become who you’ve never been. Take that invitation, hit the road to the address of growth, and don’t waste the fuel!