Feeling Stuck and Behind? Don't Mistake Life's Detour for a Dead End (Summer Shift Week 10)

You feel like life is finished.

All the opportunities have closed for you.

But what I want you to know is that, my friend, your story is not over.

It's just taken a detour.

And that is what today is about.

It's about understanding that sometimes in life, when things go sideways, when things go wrong, it doesn't mean that the book has finished.

It doesn't mean that the story has ended.

Instead, it just means that the story just took a plot twist.

My friend, this is Grit Grace and Inspiration.

I am your host, Kevin Lowe, and this is episode 457.

Now, that also means that this is week number 10 in our 12-week summer shift series.

So that means, my friend, we are on the tail end of summer.

Everybody is starting to get back to life.

I'm seeing posts about friends who have kids who are getting ready to go back to school.

Everything is about to come to an end.

And if you're like me, you're kind of thinking, my gosh, where did the summer go?

Well, my friend, with that said, if by any chance you are new here to the podcast, or if maybe you've been busy this summer enjoying the summer vacation season, and you've missed any episodes in our SummerShift series, well, by all means, be sure that you go back and check them out.

They are all queued up and ready for you to listen to, easily identified by SummerShift, included in the episode title.

So, with that said, let's get on to week number 10 in the SummerShift series.

As I said at the beginning, today's episode is for the people who feel like their life somehow fell off the side of the map.

Like your life proved that the world is flat.

And maybe that came by way of the plan falling apart.

Or maybe a season of life that you were really enjoying, it came to an abrupt halt.

And maybe you've gotten stuck in that horrible trap here recently of looking at where you are compared to where you thought you would be.

If that is you, well, my friend, first and foremost, you're definitely not alone.

I've been there.

I felt how you feel.

And that is why today I want to talk to you.

Because I want to help to shift your perspective in seeing what lies ahead, that the story isn't over.

It hasn't ended.

It's just taking a detour.

What I've learned in life is that when life does take a detour, your mind seems to tell yourself a different story.

It tells you that this is the end.

It's the fact that you missed your shot.

It's all downhill from here.

But what I want you to understand is that a detour is not a dead end.

And what does a detour mean?

Well, a detour, it doesn't mean that the trip has ended.

It doesn't mean that your journey is over.

It just means that the road you are traveling down is now closed.

And it reroutes you to a different path, a different roadway.

And oftentimes, most of the time, the road that it takes you down is not one that you would have chosen.

It's not one that you ever saw coming.

But the wild part, the beautiful part about the craziness of life's chaos, is that sometimes the detour takes you somewhere better than the road you were even on.

I mean, just think about a road trip.

You've probably been on a road trip before, and all of a sudden, the route that you were on, the route that the map showed you should be on, the GPS directing you down, had a detour, road closed, or maybe there was a bad accident.

And so traffic is backed up on I-95.

And rather than sitting in traffic, you decide to just jump off on the next exit and find a different way.

And what happens?

Well, yeah, you're inconvenienced.

You wanted to get to where you were going.

But hey, along the way, you discover a whole new town that you never knew before.

You never would have explored before.

And you open yourself up to all these opportunities, these new experiences that you otherwise would have missed.

Because what I want you to understand, my friend, is that in life, the detours are hard.

They're soul-crushing.

But a lot of times they lead us down a path that in the big picture life, we needed to experience.

We needed to go down that different path in order for us to find the blessing that was waiting.

To really give this a little tangible meaning, a little explanation, I have to take you back to 2020, a year forever etched in all of our memories.

Of course, because of the global pandemic.

And in 2020, lives were destroyed.

Too many lives were taken too soon.

But even for many of us who didn't have our lives destroyed, we did have our lives shaken.

It was a total life change.

Lives that we had been living all of a sudden were thrown into turmoil.

Maybe we used to enjoy going out and about, going to the park, going to the restaurants, and then all of a sudden we're locked away in our homes apart from one another.

And yeah, it changed our lives in ways we never saw coming.

Up until the spring of 2020, I was a travel agent.

I had my own travel agency that I had started in January of 2013.

So for seven years, I had been showing up every day to book vacations, to build a brand, to build a business.

And yet, in the span of one week, all of that work seemed to be completely destroyed.

The business I built was done.

Every vacation booked, every person I talked to and planned out their dream trip was all canceled.

It was all done.

But what I didn't realize at the time is that what I thought was closure was actually just a detour.

Because the dead end, the travel agency closing, was actually a detour leading me down a new path.

And a detour that, in fact, led me to exactly where I am today.

Now, six years later, 457 episodes later, because yeah, it was while we were locked away in quarantine during the pandemic that I started this very podcast.

That was not the end of a story.

That instead was just a plot twist.

Now, during a plot twist, we have to understand one key difference.

There's a difference between being lost and being stuck somewhere in between.

Lost, it means there's no way forward.

In between, that means you're just standing still in between the chapter that was and the chapter that's about to begin.

And the truth is, is that time spent in between, we're gonna call it the gap, it's uncomfortable.

It's quiet, it's confusing.

You're left to wonder, what's next?

And why isn't anything happening for me?

It's the part of the movie that you don't yet understand how it's all gonna turn out.

But the gap is not the ending.

Instead, the gap is where the rewrite happens, it's where the story changes.

So if you feel stuck in the in-between, I want you to know this for certain the gap does not last forever.

And instead of allowing yourself while stuck in the in-between, while trapped in the gap, to get frustrated, discouraged, upset, angry, instead, I want you to understand that this is preparing you, preparing you for what is next.

Now, the part that I want you to really hold on to is that nothing on a detour, nothing in the gap is wasted.

It's easy when a detour happens to feel like everything you've been doing was for nothing.

As I said, I had been building a business for seven years, being a travel agent, building a brand, being a business owner.

And yeah, maybe there were times after it all came shuddering down when I asked, but why?

Why would I have spent the past seven years devoted to this one thing if it was all meant to end so abruptly?

But the fact is true, is nothing is wasted.

Everything we do, every day that happens, is for a reason.

Every hard thing you've already experienced, that's just knowledge you get to carry with you.

Every skill, every scar, none of it disappears just because the direction you're headed changes.

My friend, no matter how many detorts happen, no matter how many plot twists occur, you're not starting from scratch.

Instead, you're starting from everything you've already lived through.

And that's a far better place to begin than zero.

It's the reason why when we have things going on in life, we want to talk to somebody who's been through it, who's experienced the trials of life.

It's why I tell you, the most meaningful conversation you can ever have is with somebody older than you, your grandparents.

Goodness, if you're lucky enough to still have your great-grandparents.

Talk to them, listen to them, take their advice to heart because they've been through it, they've seen it, they've done it, they've experienced it.

So, what I want for you this week with today's episode is I want you to stop measuring your life by the road you lost, and instead start looking at the road you're actually on.

The most important question I want you to ask yourself if this is a detour and not a dead end, what is the next thing for me?

What is the next step I'm supposed to take?

What is the next turn I'm supposed to make?

I'm not asking you to look at the whole map, to get yourself boggled down by trying to figure out how to get to point Z when you're stuck back on point C.

Instead, I just want you to focus on the next turn, the next step.

Stop worrying about so far in the future.

Because maybe as you've learned, it can all change in the blink of an eye.

Before you know it, the road you're on closes.

But the powerful thing about life is that there's always another road to turn down, another opportunity for you to choose, for you to make a choice, for you to take control of the wheel and steer your life where you want it.

Now I know that's easier said than done.

But my friend, if we don't keep trying, if we don't keep hoping, if we don't keep showing up to life like we have it in control, like the steering wheel is in our hands, then what are any of us doing?

We only get one chance at this life.

We have to make it count.

So again, what I want you to understand is that if life feels confusing right now, if you're traveling down a road that you never would have chosen, I want you to look at it differently.

The detour is not the end.

No, you still have an opportunity to make what you want out of this life.

So find joy on the road you're traveling down.

Turn up the radio, roll down the windows and sing out loud.

Enjoy it.

Even in the midst of the chaos, the uncertainty, enjoy it.

Soak it all in, my friend.

And right now, in the midst of summer, it's a perfect opportunity for you to do it.

If you're stuck in between, well, you know what?

Just enjoy it.

Let your hair down, kick back, relax, and see where life takes you.

And remember this: if you feel stuck, if you feel like life took a detour, it's all gonna work out in the end.

It's all gonna be okay.

Until next week, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

I hope you've enjoyed today's episode.

If by any chance it made you think of somebody in your life who needs a reminder that life is not over, it's just taking a detour.

Well, please share today's episode with them.

And until next week, I just hope that you get out there and enjoy this beautiful time of year.

And I will see you right back here next week with week 11 in our summer shift series.

Have an awesome day.