Second Chances
Tim Connor
Do we all
need a second chance from time to time?
How about a third one? Or more? Ever had a second chance and ignored it? Ever had a second chance and in hindsight
realized that it positively changed the trajectory of your life in some way?
These questions are not redundant. We
all get second chances, even more, that we ignore, don’t realize or even spurn for
any number of reasons.
How about a
second – health chance? How about a
second – career chance? I know you are
getting bored by my questions – see what I mean? I’m just trying to set up the foundation for this article and you have
lost your patience for giving me a second chance or I have touched a sore spot
in your life and you wonder where I’m heading.
Either way,
the entire question of second or third, fourth or 100th chances is
moot if we don’t see the need to evaluate them, consider them or take advantage
of them.
If I had to
bet – there is some area of your life right now where you wish you could have a
second chance? Am I right?
What exactly
is a second (or another) chance?
It can be a
new beginning, a new ending, a new opportunity or a new life lesson – painful
or cheerful. It gives us the choice to
stay on a path that may or may not be working or beneficial or the option of
fixing a previous mistake, failure, bad decision or choice or accepting
responsibility for our life as it is unfolding.
Life has
given me many second chances – some I embraced and many I ignored but in the
end they all came into my life for a reason – to help me get wiser in some way
– to teach me something I needed to learn and to help me to let go of ego,
arrogance, insecurity, immaturity or any number of emotional, financial,
relationship and/or career behaviors that in the end, if they didn’t change,
would have come to a negative conclusion in some way.
Risk,
uncertainty, and change in our life circumstances can not be avoided
sooner or later. We all must face some
unknowns and do the best we can with them given our education, history
etc. But in the end, we will all make some
dumb decisions or choices, it’s who we are.
But life is seldom final. It
helps us, if and when we are ready, to improve, grow, change, adjust etc. and
learn from our mistakes, failures and bad choices or decisions.
But, life
also will not prevent us from experiencing the lessons or consequences of these
actions, choices or behaviors as this is one of life’s ways of helping us
learn, grow and change. But, it still
gives us a choice. Life says, “Learn
from this or you will continue to bear the consequences of these actions until
you do. I am giving you a second
chance. Don’t blow this one.”
When fear of
change, risk or uncertainty rules our life we close ourselves off too many of
life’s opportunities and blessings.
However, we
must not see second chances as simply a way to escape from lessons that need to
be learned.
So, you are
in a dead-end job going nowhere and a previous employer offers you a new
position with more income and no hard feelings about the way you previously
left. Take it or not – that is the
question.
A previous
spouse wants to try again to make it work this time and they say they forgive
you your transgressions. Say yes or no?
Life is
filled with these types of options and choices – so what do we do? I can’t tell you how to approach second
chances – all I can tell you is what I have learned. Sometimes they work out well and sometimes
they don’t, so how do we know which road to follow?
-Listen to
your gut. Ask yourself – what really feels right? What makes sense? What would I do if I was
smarter, wiser, younger, older, poorer, richer – get it? Just keep asking yourself questions and I
will guarantee sooner or later the answer will come – do it, don’t do it, wait,
get more information before you decide or some other approach that often seems
to come from nowhere.
Sooner or
alter we all get a second chance so the question is not whether we have one or
deserve one but what do we do with it?
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