Trout Lake, WA
Late the night before I had been scouring the weather channels to find the place that had the best chance of sunshine and Trout lake was the ONLY place that was showing anything other than clouds, clouds, clouds. So embarking on the journey, we started our journey as per usual stupid early to drive the 3+ hours it takes to get to the trailhead and once again the fog is just rolling in, keeping us from experiencing the amazingly incredible views that we were hoping to see.
As we got closer to the trailhead, it started snowing and my friend and I were looking at each other like, are we still doing this thing? But we had made the drive so of course we were going to at least see what was up.
So on and on we went in the snow, in the fog infested area - trying to watch out for falling through the snow and into streams that were hidden below the surface.
Yet - we had a great time.
We laughed, we joked, we talked about anything and everything while we continued to get absolutely soaked and try to see this amazing lake we had heard about.
After saying “I think we should turn back once we….” then foot falling through the snow and landing in a stream and landing flat on my back - we decided it was time to turn around and call it a day. So soaked, we turned around and went back to the car.
But guess what? We had such a great time! Any time the fog cleared for a minute and we got a glimpse of the beauty surrounding us, we were so excited! We kept talking about coming back and how cool it would be! But if we had focused on everything we missed out on, we would have been miserable, soaking wet and frustrated at the whole trip. Moral of the story? Attitude really is everything.
Now think about work: If you decide that it is the responsibility of your manager or your team to make your time at work a positive experience - I got news for you! It’s almost always all about attitude.
If you show up to work determined to make an impact and have a great time, you will usually make an impact and have a great time! Now on the other hand, if you see that as someone else’ responsibility to make your life amazing, you will most likely be miserable every day.
The first thing I do when I’m not happy at work is examine my own attitude and see where I’m contributing. Now, please do not misunderstand that if you are in a toxic work environment or are being asked to do things that do not align with your values, then yes - please leave and look elsewhere.
But if you are making excuses about why you are miserable and pointing fingers to everyone around you - point it back to yourself and have a difficult conversation about what is truly making you miserable.