Just keep walking

I went to hop on the travellator at my local shopping centre recently, and suddenly discovered it was cordoned off as it was out of service and being repaired. A friendly note pinned to it directed me to the lift, which I had never had the reason to use before. Luckily, it was easy to find, so I jumped in and headed to the ground level.

When the doors opened, I marched out in the direction I thought the shops were located, but suddenly had a moment of confusion – nothing looked familiar! Whilst my body was confidently moving forward, my mind was elsewhere – swimming with thoughts of “oh my goodness, where am I?”. 

Not wanting to look disorientated or foolish in front of the other people exiting the lift, I marched onwards, and suddenly, thankfully, I recognised where I was. It only took a split second for me to lose my bearings and find them again, but this is such a common experience – even in familiar places, isn’t it? Whilst I knew the shopping centre well, I’d never had the need to use the lift before, so it was perfectly understandable that it wasn’t familiar.

The key thing was pressing on, and maintaining my confidence.

This is true of many new experiences in life. Of course we’re not going to know the exact path or process – we’ve never done it before! The important thing is to keep marching forward until we find our bearings.

And don’t forget, it’s also ok to stop and ask for directions.