I’m Grateful for My Unexpected Chain of Events

Last year at this time, I had big plans. I was working with a business partner and a videographer, creating training videos for an online course that we were sure would rock the real estate marketing world. We were creating a content system that would help Realtors figure out the best social media posts to grow the most effective online presence.

We were developing webinars. I felt like I was in college, cramming for finals, drinking endless cups of coffee, writing and reading and rereading my notes. The only writing I was doing was scripts for videos.

We had fourteen very loyal clients that we were helping, mostly local Realtors who had trusted me and signed up for a course that we promised would change their business model. We had a hard launch date for the larger public of March 15, after which we were sure we would gain a minimum of 250 online clients.

Our business plan was solid. Our materials had beautiful graphics and solid info. Our videos were beautifully produced.

We were working long hours toward the launch. The photo for this post is one of me, preparing for yet another instructional video on “Being Social As a Realtor.”

And then COVID hit.

The rest is a long tale of woe, but you know how it went. Perhaps it went that way for you as well. Maybe you had a deal in the works. Maybe you were creating a retail product that was going to change the traditional office environment. Heck, maybe you were just starting a new job as a chef in a restaurant. Maybe you had just bought and were furnishing a short term vacation rental.

March 2020 caught us all by surprise.

And the reason the title of this is “I’m grateful for MY unexpected chain of events,” is because I know that not everyone had a chain of events that lead them to a positive place. Some of you lost your jobs. Some of you lost someone you love, which is the worst chain of events 2020 gave anyone.

As I say frequently, I’m only an expert on myself. I only know what happened to me, where my path led.

And my heart aches for anyone whose 2020 chain of events took them to a place of sorrow and loss.

The reason I’m writing this post is because if you’re someone who found their unexpected chain of events creating something new and wonderful, I want to celebrate that with you. I want to recognize that on occasion, life doesn’t turn out at all like you had planned for it to. Frequently, what you end up with is better.

That’s how my stage IV cancer diagnosis was for me. I had just moved to Santa Fe after dreaming about it for decades. In 2012, I thought I had the world by the tail. I had just been ugly dumped by someone I never should have dated in a million years. I was beat up by life, uncertain about my future, defeated in my own very small way.

And a crazy chain of events had lead me to the one place I had wanted to live since I was six years old. I was thin for the first time in my life (of course, that was the fault of the cancer, but I thought it was because of the breakup), I had some money in the bank from selling my house, and I thought life was perfect.

I’m fortunate to have moved at the moment I did. It got me close to good medical care and into a community of strangers who helped my daughter take care of me in the worst crisis of my life. Less than 90 days after I moved to Santa Fe, I was diagnosed.

Last March another chain of events surprised me and then redirected me. Our March 15 launch date wasn’t going to work – all the Realtors we hoped to snag as paying clients were suddenly facing uncertainty and possible financial devastation. Rather than creating another webinar, we quietly folded up our tent. We dissolved our company.

And because there was little else to do at the moment, I started writing again, and editing, and polishing this manuscript I had written over the months when I was diagnosed. After years of showering and grooming early to go to the office and hunt down one more sale, after a relentless pursuit of more, more, more, I sat in my pajamas and wrote. Studied. Revived my “I Love New Mexico” blog. Which lead me to an experienced and generous editor who said some magic words that further motivated me (more on that tomorrow).

That chain of events lead me to now. Last week my book became available on Amazon.

My book isn’t a masterpiece, but if it helps one person to get through a difficult time, it was worth all that fear I lived through. It’s worth all those mornings in my pajamas.

Today I’m grateful for my unexpected chain of events.

For some reason, Rascal Flatts “God Bless the Broken Road,” is the tune I keep hearing in my head as I write this. It’s an old theme in my life. I took no traditional paths to get to where I am. But this life is amazing. Better than I could have ever dreamed for myself.

As John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

I’d love to hear about the unexpected chain of events you’re most grateful for.