As we head into 2025 - a new year with new promise - I look back on the past couple years and give thanks for what has evolved in my work environment, mostly despite my efforts and intentions.
I saw the reel in the video above on Instagram recently, and it made me think of my own path for the past couple years as I navigated a job change in my 50s. This reel is from Inky Johnson, someone I’ve been really enjoying following and learning from. In this reel, he talks about how the difficult times that we may find ourselves in are lessons for us to learn and grow. These lessons were circled on a map for us by God to say “This is where you’re supposed to be, right now”. It reminds me of a favorite saying that states,
“You’re right where you’re supposed be”
That’s a difficult concept to accept, let alone embrace when you’re not where you want to be, and that’s where I found myself in 2023 and 2024.
I was in a job that was not the right fit for me, and I was looking for a change. It was a very challenging time for me where I questioned my worth and God’s will for me. At the time, I was working for a private consulting firm, and I was getting tired of the intense focus on profits, revenue growth, and maximizing chargable hours. So after much prayer, I decided (or thought I had discerned?) that my job change should involve a leap to the public sector. I wanted to work for the US Department of Energy (DOE) in a new group they had formed, which was focused on an area that I have special expertise in (environmental permitting for electric transmission lines). I had my heart set on this DOE job and was determined that it was God’s will for me. I applied to other jobs in other sectors, but this job was THE ONE. I put all my emotional eggs in that basket, and when they didn't pick me, I was crushed. The back-up was to go to the Offshore wind industry - it was still private sector, but it was a little more mission focused with more purpose than those sell-out consultants 😉
The only problem was that I didn’t get any of the Offshore Wind jobs, either. I only had one option left, which was another consulting firm. I desperately needed to exit my job at the time; so I just took the consulting job. I was not particularly excited about it, which is ironic, because, clearly, that was God’s will, but I was not on board with that yet. I did not have the maturity that Inky Johnson has to say “Thank You” while I felt like I was eating the proverbial shit sandwich. I felt like I had been eating shit sandwiches for two years at my previous job; so I was not particularly grateful for the situation I found myself in.
But I took the consulting gig at a new firm and decided to roll with it. It’s been going pretty well since then, and now that we are entering 2025, my perspective has changed. The Trump administration has come in to power. It is gutting the Department of Energy and has issued an Executive Order to try to kill the Offshore Wind industry in the US. The two areas where I had my heart set on landing, ending up being bad options. It reminds me of a saying an old mentor had. He’d look at me when I had my heart set on a particular outcome, shake his head and say
“You know what? It’s probably best for you NOT to be in the results business…”
I can pray, and I can discern, but once I determine I know what God’s will is, things have a way of changing. So now, a little more than a year after God circled this change on a map for me, can I say “Thank you for trusting me!” (it only took a year! )
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