My first real job was working as an architectural graduate in a large private firm. And by ‘large’, I mean VERY large by Australian standards: 100 people all working in one place, most of them graduates of the exact same degree I had… dozens of architects all trying to climb the same corporate ladder to get to the top.
I remember working all weekend to get a series of presentation boards ready for a client meeting on Monday. If you’ve ever seen the TV series “Mad Men” think of those pre-computer presentations, where ideas were displayed as graphics on big boards, hand drawn, hand colored… that’s what I had been making all weekend. They took hours and hours to make, especially if you were pitching a design for whole shopping center!
On the Monday morning, I asked my boss’s boss if I could sit in the back of the meeting room to watch the presentation. I promised, hand on heart, I wouldn’t say a word, I just wanted to watch and listen and learn. He shook his head and said, “no – it would look bad – you’re the bottom rung of the ladder – you’re not supposed to be in such an important meeting.” I thanked him for taking the time to consider my request then went off in a huff. When I told my friend in accounts about it later, she burst out laughing and wondered, “what does that make me?” After pondering for a while, one of us decided she must be the dirt they rest the ladder on… and although we kept laughing… it didn’t seem funny at all.
UGH.
A couple of years later, I was still working in my own little rut, being the best me I could be, and not really getting noticed by anyone in the company. That said – someone WAS noticing my hard work – one of our clients. One day, seemingly out of the blue, he congratulated me on my attitude and effort and asked me to come work for him and help manage the other architects he employed all across Australia. I called up my dad to ask what he thought, and he worried that I’d spent so long studying to be an architect it seemed like a waste to give it away. When I told him what my new salary would be, he laughed and asked me why I hadn’t already accepted the offer.
(We’re not a material family, but the pay for architects in Australia is NOT great. By way of example, when I was taken onto a construction site as a student, the teacher pointed to a laborer pushing a broom across the new concrete slab: “see that guy? He makes more money as a junior construction worker than you’ll make as a registered architect” – and he was probably right.)
Anyway – the point is, I went from being the company’s lacky to the company’s client.
Life changes – we change – it takes us in directions we hadn’t originally planned.
Fast forward to more recent years, and I heard a phrase being bandied around: “DSD” – it stands for Do Sh!t Differently.
It reminds me of the Albert Einstein platitude that it is madness to keep doing the same thing time and again and yet expect a different outcome. The same old thinking / habits / actions will lead to the same old results.
[Image source: Pinterest]
Keep putting oranges in your juicer, and you can’t expect to drink anything other than orange juice.
Keep working for someone who sees you as the bottom rung of a ladder, and the chances are you’ll always feel a little dirty.
Keep waking up each morning and lamenting that the chronic pain of the last few days, weeks, months, is still there, and then go about your day in the same way as you always do, then there’s a pretty good chance you’ll wake up tomorrow with the same pain.
If, on the other hand, you DSD, then you add a carrot to your juicer, look for alternate employment, or experiment with meditating, breathing better or moving mindfully to see if you can’t shift yourself out of the chronic-pain-rut you’re in.
If your medicines aren’t helping reduce your pain – keep taking them – BUT – ask yourself what else you can change in your life that might help you DSD.
This post was a strange, long-winded way of getting to where I wanted you to be, but hopefully the beating around the bush helped you to see that life isn’t perfect, but we don’t have to stay trapped… there are (usually) options.
As I’ve mentioned before – you can remix your life like a DJ:
Double down on what works in your life and makes you feel better (physically or emotionally) – for everything else, start tweaking… and slowly but surely, DSD.
Take care taking care (differently), Linda x
[PS – Disclaimer – in case you’re new here – please remember I am NOT a doctor or therapist; I’m just offering advice that has helped me heal – be sure to speak to your own healthcare providers about your individual situation before you “DSD” with your lifestyle or medical options.]
PPS – a quick shoutout to the blog Empire Unleashed which is authored by Gelcys, a fellow-migraine-warrior. Her husband and son also get migraines, and she shares their story and details of her upcoming fundraiser with “Miles for Migraines” on February the 8th on her post here: Dear migraine, just NO.
The Mindful Migraine 
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