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

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

Kevin Lowe: It's just taken a detour. And that is what today is about.

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

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't mean that the story has ended.

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

Kevin Lowe: My friend, this is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration. I am your host, Kevin Lowe, and this is episode 457.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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?

Kevin Lowe: 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 Summer Shift series, well, by all means, be sure that you go back and check them out.

Kevin Lowe: They are all queued up and ready for you to listen to, easily identified by Summer Shift included in the episode title.

Kevin Lowe: So, with that said, let's get on to week number 10 in the Summer Shift series.

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

Kevin Lowe: Like, your life proved that the world is flat.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: I've been there. I felt how you feel.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: It hasn't ended. It's just taking a detour.

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

Kevin Lowe: It tells you that this is the end. It's the fact that you missed your shot.

Kevin Lowe: It's all downhill from here.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: And it reroutes you to a different path, a different roadway.

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

Kevin Lowe: It's not one that you ever saw coming.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: Or maybe there was a bad accident, and so traffic is backed up on I-95.

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

Kevin Lowe: And what happens? Well, yeah, you're inconvenienced. You wanted to get to where you were going.

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

Kevin Lowe: You never would have explored before.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: They're soul crushing.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: And in 2020, lives were destroyed. Too many lives were taken too soon.

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

Kevin Lowe: It was a total life change. Lives that we had been living all of a sudden were thrown into turmoil.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: Because the dead end, the travel agency closing.

Kevin Lowe: Was actually a detour leading me down a new path.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: That was not the end of a story. That instead was just a plot twist.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: Lost, it means there's no way forward.

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

Kevin Lowe: And the truth is, is that time spent in between, we're going to call it the gap, it's uncomfortable.

Kevin Lowe: It's quiet. It's confusing. You're left to wonder, what's next?

Kevin Lowe: And why isn't anything happening for me?

Kevin Lowe: It's the part of the movie that you don't yet understand how it's all going to turn out.

Kevin Lowe: But the gap is not the ending. Instead, the gap is where the rewrite happens.

Kevin Lowe: It's where the story changes.

Kevin Lowe: So if you feel stuck in the in-between, I want you to know this for certain.

Kevin Lowe: The gap does not last forever.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Lowe: But the fact is true, is nothing is wasted. Everything we do, every day that happens is for a reason.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: My friend, no matter how many detours happen, no matter how many plot twists occur, you're not starting from scratch.

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

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: Goodness, if you're lucky enough to still have your great-grandparents, talk to them. Listen to them.

Kevin Lowe: Take their advice to heart because they've been through it. They've seen it.

Kevin Lowe: They've done it. They've experienced it.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: And instead start looking at the road you're actually on.

Kevin Lowe: 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?

Kevin Lowe: What is the next step I'm supposed to take? What is the next turn I'm supposed to make?

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: Stop worrying about so far in the future, because maybe as you've learned, it can all change in the blink of an eye.

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

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: 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?

Kevin Lowe: We only get one chance at this life. We have to make it count.

Kevin Lowe: So again, what I want you to understand 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.

Kevin Lowe: The detour is not the end. No, you still have an opportunity to make what you want out of this life.

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

Kevin Lowe: Turn up the radio, roll down the windows and sing out loud. Enjoy it.

Kevin Lowe: Even in the midst of the chaos, the uncertainty.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

Kevin Lowe: If you're stuck in between, well, you know what? Just enjoy it.

Kevin Lowe: Let your hair down. Kick back. Relax.

Kevin Lowe: And see where life takes you. And remember this, if you feel stuck, if you feel like life took a detour, it's all going to work out in the end.

Kevin Lowe: It's all going to be okay. Until next week, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Kevin Lowe: I hope you've enjoyed today's episode.

Kevin Lowe: 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.

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

Kevin Lowe: And I will see you right back here next week with week 11 in our Summer Shift series. Have an awesome day.