When Life Doesn't Go As Planned

Sometimes life doesn't go as planned. But it's OK!

In this episode I share some examples from my life about plans not going the way I thought I wanted them to go. And I explain why most times, that is a GOOD thing.

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Hi, you are listening to the Cheetah Print Chats podcast, and I'm your host, Jenny. I'm in my mid-40s, married, a dog mom, and a cat mom. I work for myself as a fitness mentor and lead for my group coaching membership, but I've also got a lot of experience in the corporate world. I've gone through a lot in my life, some good, some not so good, but it's all left me with a lot of life lessons that I want to share with you, as well as my nieces and nephews, which are who I started this podcast for in the first place. These are life lessons that, in my opinion, will never go out of style. Much like Cheetah Print. I hope that you're able to learn something from my life that benefits your life. Let's chat. And if you didn't see the title, the topic today is about how life doesn't always turn out as we plan. I mean, I'm sure we've all had the best slaid plans and they didn't work out. It happens. And I know we all have an idea of where we want our lives to go or where we think they should go, and sometimes that's just not gonna happen. Some of you listening right now may be young and have your life ahead of you still, and you have a vision of what you want that to look like. Some of you are in the middle or later stages of life, and maybe your plans played out, but I'm sure for most of you they didn't. I'm not telling you this to freak you out though, especially if you're younger. I'm just giving you a heads up. And I want you to know that when there are changes we never expected, they could be the best thing ever. And it could be things we never would have thought of on our own. But God, the universe, our higher selves, whatever you believe in, has a way of getting us on the path that is best for us. And I will say, I am not talking about grief, losing loved ones, humans, or pets, because that is just too deep a topic that I just don't want to dive into right now. I'm talking about life stuff, job changes, relationship changes, living situation changes, or maybe opportunities that fell through, or something like you didn't get your quote-unquote dream house, stuff like that. I'm gonna use my story to give a lot, a lot of examples of plans that may not go as planned, but I guarantee 99% of you are gonna relate to one or more of these things. So stick with me. So, okay, when we're kids, we all get asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? And not many people currently, now as an adult, are what they said they wanted to be in first grade. I know at least one thing I wanted to be was a veterinarian, and also at some point wanted to be a marine biologist, which apparently was an 80s kid thing. And I don't know where that came from, but I've recently found out that I was not the only one that wanted to do that. I never became a marine biologist, but I did go to school eventually to be a veterinary technician. I was licensed, I worked in an animal hospital, so I was not a veterinarian, but it was something similar. And I only did that for a few years. The rest of my life was very different. I went to school for athletic training, which, well, let me back up. I will back up. When I first went to school, I went to school for botany and natural resources. Like right out of high school, that's what I went to school for. For that, I went off to Mizzou, which is a school about an hour and a half from home. The plan was to go to college, join our sorority, have a full college away from home experience, meet my future husband, graduate, get a job, get married, and have kids. That was the norm for people my age. That was the norm we grew up with, and probably something many kids are still growing up with. I ended up going to Mizzou for one semester, and I drove home every weekend because I missed some stupid boy. Oh, so many regrets there. And I also worked part-time, so it was not the college experience, I imagined. Then I came home from Mizzou after my one semester and finished off my associate's degree at a community college, which was nice because that saved me some money. Me and that guy broke up, by the way. The one I came home for every weekend when I was away from home. Again, regrets. Well, kinda. Things happen for a reason, you know. After community college, though, I then decided to go to Lyndonwood University, which is a private university near my home, and I went there for athletic training. Which well, I was interested in fitness at the time, but I really didn't know much about anything, especially when it came to the medical side of it, which is what athletic training is. I had a new boyfriend at that time. We were pretty serious, but he was in the Air Force, so like he wasn't around a lot. I did live on campus and I had a lot of friends, and I did get to experience college life. So I am glad I did not miss out on that experience. So back to our topic at hand. So far in my story, I am now 22 years old. I have college plans that didn't work out the way I had planned them. I had some relationships that didn't turn out as expected. I have a degree that I'm not going to use. And I mean, at the time I didn't know that, but then because of my boyfriend moving to Germany, he moved to Germany, by the way, with the Air Force. We got married the week after I graduated college, and then I moved to Europe two days after that. That was another very surprising life situation that I did not plan on. Because who well, I guess some people plan on moving to Europe, but I did not have any plans like that. So I never used my degree, but I did love Europe. Again, Germany, to be exact. That's where we lived for two and a half years. Then we moved to Las Vegas, another place I never planned on living, and then we moved home and got divorced soon after. We also went bankrupt and had to short sell our house. None of that was in my plans. You don't plan on getting divorced and going bankrupt. I was also working three jobs and barely getting by. So at this point, I'm 28, and my life is nowhere near what I had planned. In fact, it's like the complete opposite. Then I met my current husband, and we actually had a very rough time in our first few years. We actually broke up for a while and got back together. The first part of our relationship versus after we got back together are night and day, which is good for us both, as we're both very different people now than we were then. He and I were together for a very long time before we got married. So note, I got married again, and I got married again when I was 42 years old. By the way, my original goal was to be married at about 26, 27. Then in the first three or four years, I was gonna have two kids. Well, technically, I wanted twins, a boy and a girl. But you know, that's not really in my control. Now I have no kids, and I have talked about being child-free in a couple past episodes, so I won't get into that. You can go listen to those. Uh, so yeah, like I mentioned, this is a lot about me, but I also know that a lot of you can relate to a lot of this because I know I'm not the only one who had life plans that didn't pan out, who doesn't have kids that we thought we'd have, or who does have kids that we didn't plan on. I'm not the only one with the college plans that didn't pan out or that doesn't use my degrees. Yes, degrees with an S, because I also went back to school to be a vet tech, as I mentioned. I didn't do that job for too long. And then when I was in my corporate job, I went back to school to get my master's degree. Then I got laid off from my corporate job. Luckily, they paid for that degree, not me. Anyway, there's so many people in life going through all that I went through. And if you're listening to this and you haven't gone through any of it yet, if you end up going through it, don't worry, because you're gonna come out on the other side and you're gonna be just fine. What am I doing now? Well, thank you for asking. Because it's nothing like I thought I'd be doing. I never could have guessed I'd be where I am now. I started my coaching business, my group coaching business, Club Next Level, and that's been going very well. But to get myself out of the house a little bit, I decided to also become a substitute teacher for the school district that I live in, which is just wild to me. I'm also doing some affiliate sales in the fitness and personal growth realm, and of course, I'm doing my podcasting. I'm happy now though. Poor, but happy. But the money will come and I truly believe that. Clubnext level is growing and will continue to grow, as will I and what I offer to help more clients. I was kinda happy in the corporate world, but just because I got a big paycheck and I had security and health insurance and things, and I was also important and I liked feeling important, but I was not happy with my job, my last role at least. My point is there have been a million plans in my life that did not pan out the way I expected. But I'm in a good spot right now. I've got money goals still for sure. I think I told you all this in my last week's episode, but I'm happy doing what I'm doing. And it's not anything I ever would have expected. I never expected to be selling anything as an affiliate. I never expected to have my own business. I never expected to be working as a substitute teacher, but here I am. And it's like, how did I get here? It's just a wild and crazy journey, but it's a good thing. I mentioned in the beginning something about dream jobs and dream homes and things falling through. Maybe you found the perfect job for you and you don't get it. That just means that that's not the right job for you, as hard as that may be to accept. You're being redirected somewhere else. For reasons you may never know, but for reasons nonetheless. I mean, maybe it's a toxic boss and he or she would have made your life miserable. Who knows? But you're gonna end up somewhere better. Or like me, you're being pushed to what will truly make you happy, a path unexpected. Or maybe you found your dream house and that falls through. Eventually you will find your actual dream house and be so thankful that you did not get the first house that you thought was what you wanted. And those are just general examples, but I'm sure you can put your own spin on it to things that have happened in your own life. And again, I know this was a lot of my story, things about me, but again, again, again, I know you can relate in some way. Total side note, speaking of my own story, I recently changed the genre of this podcast from self-help and education to more of a personal journal style podcast, because a lot of it is about me. I mean, the whole point is to help you in some way, but it's still through my life experiences or someone else's, especially as I start to have more guests. You'll hear other people's stories. And by help you, I mean teach you something, make sure you don't feel alone in anything that you may be going through that I've experienced or that one of my guests has has experienced. Maybe it's to help you dream bigger, believe in yourself more, give you hope, or see something with a different point of view. Alright, to my older listeners, I hope that if you've gone through a lot of change or you're going through a lot of change, you can realize that it's good, and if it's not good yet, it will be good. Again, I'm not talking about death, I'm talking about just general life changes. I've talked about death in episodes before, but that's not part of today's topic. And if you are younger and you're getting ready to go into the real world, out of high school, out of college, even middle school, and you're going to high school, I want you to know that you should have dreams and you should have plans, but I don't want you to be completely tied down to them. I don't want that to be your end all be all, you know, because a lot of times our plans don't go the way we expect. Our life doesn't go the way we planned, and it's okay, because most of the time it's gonna be better and it's gonna be surprising. It's gonna be something you never expected. So, you know, have your goals for sure, work towards them, but if they don't go as planned, be open-minded about why and be excited for where it's leading you next. Just remember, you're gonna be just fine. In most cases, you're gonna be better than you ever imagined. You'll face hard times and challenges and a lot of disappointments, but you're gonna be okay. We will chat next week. I so very much appreciate every single one of you for listening. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved this episode, please leave me a review and share with your friends. To connect with me, find me on Instagram at Jenny302. That's J E N I and the numbers 302. Or you can find other ways to connect with me listed in the show notes. I can't wait to chat more with you.