When Your Life is Sunburned (How You Know a Change is Needed)

When Your Life is Sunburned (How You Know a Change is Needed)

Part of my job is to listen to individuals’ issues and help them solve them.  Oftentimes, this goes outside the scope of dollars and cents.  I find my clients become friends, and the fact that I have a unique perspective since I and my colleagues have seen most life situations play out numerous times becomes a valuable resource when it comes to advice in general. 

I would liken it to why you go to your parents still for advice since they have lived through whatever tough times you are going through.  Although, I am only 42 years old I’d like to think I’ve lived a hundred lifetimes by this point.

When life is sunburned:

When I was dealing with a 2-year bout of vestibular migraines people would ask what my triggers would be.  The best way I could describe it was being sunburned.  I would tell people that if I just patted you on the back normally you would think nothing of it.  However, when you are severely sunburned something as minute as a back pat puts you in excruciating pain.  That is how living with migraines would be, a normal occurrence like my kids yelling would trigger a headache of sorts.  In other words, I would tell people I lived with constant sunburn as I was hyper-sensitive and affected by normal occurrences.

Let’s turn this conversation from me to all of you.  For most of our lives, we are on a constant glide path.  Wake up, go to work, enjoy your friends and family, do your passions, and then rinse and repeat.  However, we all hit those moments when our lives are sunburned.  I’d describe this differently as one bad day at work or with your kids (trust me I have an 11-year-old daughter/terrorist living in my house).  You see one bad day can be rough, but it isn’t a full-on sunburn.  When life has hit that moment when the sun (life) has done its damage you will recognize it quickly.

This is when you wake up exhausted, you see no end in sight, and quite frankly you aren’t happy.  You’ll find little things that really aren’t a big deal start to irrationally bother you.  You become short with people and life in general.  These are the signs that your life is becoming or is in full-on sunburnt mode.

Time to Aloe!  

When you hit this critical mass it is important to understand a change is warranted.  It may be in your relationship, your job, your location, your friend group, or some combination of them all.  The point is when you realize everything bothers you, it is time to find the root of the sunburn/pain.  The signs are there and many times the best cure is to change your surroundings or environment.  Otherwise, you’ll find yourself muttering the words insanity is doing the same thing day in and day out expecting a different result.  That simply doesn’t happen folks.

Now, I am not suggesting blowing up your life by any stretch.  Rather, what I’ve found successful is picking that biggest pain point and working on fixing it.  It could be as simple as talking to your boss about a reorg or job change.  Possibly working for a different manager or being relocated.  Yes, sometimes it may mean switching jobs altogether. 

The beauty, that I have witnessed, is usually by taking out the biggest pain point the sunburn goes away.  Now, that you aren’t miserable 8 hours a day you are less sensitive to the other pieces of your life that may not be perfect, but hey that is life.  The domino effect is quite astonishing watching people fix one big pain point that results in a release valve in all areas of one’s life. 

I see this a lot in people as I am lucky enough to not only have wonderful clients/friends that I work with.  They generally let me into their inner circle of trust willing to share what truly bothers them.  This is the first step to fixing a problem is being self-aware that there is a problem to be fixed in the first place.  From there we can work on a remedy or plan and also have the added benefit of understanding its implications on your life financially as well. 

So, are you sunburned?  If so, we are here to listen with a thoughtful ear and an open heart.  Stay wealthy, healthy, and happy!

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