Embracing The Detours: When God Takes You On The Scenic Route

Embracing the Detours: When God takes you on the scenic route through life. This one sentence could possibly sum up my whole life, thus far. While this post isn’t about my life story, this phrase has pretty much been the story of my life for the first quarter of 2017.

Last week I did a #PassTheScope/Facebook LIVE video titled, “When The SOAR is Slow“. It was partly my first quarter in review, as I reflected on the first three months of 2017, but mostly it was meant to serve encouragement for anyone who may be feeling like they are not going fast enough or they may not be achieving your goals as fast as they thought they would.

Sometimes God takes you on the scenic route 😉

My word for 2017 is SOAR so of course, I made all these great plans, set my goals for quarter 1 and I was ready to SOAR. I intentionally started off the yearly on a slow pace because I felt that I came into 2017 a bit tired. I paced myself for the first few weeks and then I was ready to go…..and then I got sick.

First, it was a terrible case of seasonal allergies with a side of sinus infection, and then a Vitamin D deficiency which left me with low energy and just generally feeling “unwell”. In the meantime, I also had some other personal stuff happening and then, as if that was not bad enough, my blog was hacked. Thankfully I was able to recover from these “setbacks” and I was able to function, but it was definitely a challenge.

While all of this was happening, God was definitely at work. While it seemed like I was moving slowly on my *own* goals, God was opening doors and setting up opportunities that were not even on my radar.
For example, I had the (last minute) opportunity to attend #EpicCon17 here in Dallas and make some wonderful connections with people who had the solutions to two of my most pressing business needs. Look at God!

I also got to work as part of the 2017 social media team for the Act Like A Success Conference.  This was my second year on the team and it also yielded some amazing connections or opportunities.

So yes, the first quarter of 2017 was not a complete “flop” and I still accomplished a lot, the “SOAR was definitely slow” and it definitely didn’t go as I planned. But hey, what do I know, right? 😉

I have learned in my almost 40 years of life that God’s plans are always better than any of the plans I could make for myself.

If you’re feeling like things are not going the way you planned, or according to social media, it seems like everyone else is *winning* and you’re at a standstill, just know that you have no idea what they had to overcome or go through to get to those wins. God might just be just taking you on a detour along a more scenic route 🙂

A young lady I’m friends with on Facebook summed it up nicely.

“Be careful saying #goals when referring to others. You have no idea what type of obstacles they defeated.” – Winnie E.