… Use disruptions (like moving or getting married) to practice the five steps. Incorporate what you learn about earning into whatever situations arise. …
—Barbara Huson (formerly Stanny)
Overcoming Underearning p. 65
My story this time recounts when my remembering this tip about recovering from underearning and applying it to a less-than-ideal situation turned complications into opportunities. In general, it hints that people still mired in underearning are going to be like ordinary hobbits never daring leaving the shire. By contrast, those who make it out and start breaking through self-imposed limitations on earning are like Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, daring to venture far beyond the cozy shire.
All the same, the disruption of my story isn’t like the epic journeys J. R. R. Tolkien imagined for a couple straying hobbits nor even at a level of “moving or getting married” suggested by Barbara Huson. Indeed, in my life I’d been open to adventures—three grand bicycle tours of a life time … in one lifetime, each taking a summer to complete and the shortest at 4300 miles—but the challenge there didn’t involve earning more money.
This little earning adventure of mine took place back when my routine for most work weeks was that I would ride my bicycle to a stop where I could catch a company shuttle for the rest of the commute to work. I could stash the bicycle in a luggage compartment on the shuttle. Then I would use the bicycle between my workplace and a nearby motel between shifts until the end of the work week when I’d stash the bicycle on board the shuttle and reverse the outbound journey back home.
This particular work week, I had email from the employer. Because of improvements being made, the bicycle racks temporarily would not be available. Find some other way to work this day, were the instructions. Walking was an option, and thanks to new construction at a rail transit station in the neighborhood, I had a short cut available as a cyclist if I were willing to carry my bicycle up stairs—a short cut that would be even easier on foot since I wouldn’t have a bicycle to carry with me. I envisioned shooting video on the trip back from work of the trip across the pedestrian bridge. This bridge cut my walking or cycling trip by a quarter mile and was so much more relaxing than pedaling or walking busy streets.
So far, so good! I even had a plan to shoot video of the approach to the foot bridge to share with Facebook friends. Already I was seeing how applying Huson’s rule about leveraging disruptions for growth from my underearning rut could lead to enjoyment instead of frustrations when things weren’t just the way I was used to them.
Then a problem. While I occupied my room with the deadbolt set, my bicycle was secure. But this idea of walking and leaving the bicycle in the room with no deadbolt seemed a touch risky—more so than leaving it locked at the workplace bike racks where there are security patrols and surveillance cameras. A need. And as the proverb suggests, necessity can summon invention. I decided to use my room’s table as a makeshift bike rack. The way I saw things, if someone happened to break into my room and I’d just left my bike there, they could wheel it out and either stash it in their vehicle or just ride it away, and chances are, motel staff wouldn’t notice anything amiss. However, if a would-be thief had to lug out a bicycle shackled to motel furniture, it would seem much more likely motel staff would notice and confront the theft in progress.
I had seen mentions of a more secure bicycle storage area at my workplace, requiring employees who used it to go through additional registration for access, but I wondered if I hadn’t heard about something that had existed but been erased by changes at the plant. Well, my walking to work that shift took me past areas I hadn’t explored when I had arrived by bicycle, and at last I found this other bicycle parking area. A result of this was that I felt more in charge. If I finally got sick of conditions in the bike parking area I had been using, I could apply for access to this nicer one.
Then another disruption: management decided to end my shift early. I looked forward to getting back to my room early and a longer sleep before having to be back for the next shift. It was early enough that there was no trace of daybreak as I neared the pedestrian bridge and started shooting video. I’ll let you see for yourself what emerged there.
Because I’d never tried using that shortcut at such ungodly wee hours before, I had no clue that it wouldn’t even be available. But applying the idea that these disruptions could be opportunities for me to keep developing robust earning attitudes, I didn’t lose it over the new obstacle. I just put in the additional quarter mile walking.
I’ve discovered that reminding myself of this advice to think of disruptions as opportunities to expand my earning habits has led to my having greater patience and increased sense of humor. I want to remember this topsy-turvy workday and how I enjoyed it despite the complications as a model for future crises. Indeed, I’ve even noticed that I apply a bit of the wisdom from it to everyday situations at work where I don’t exactly like the way something’s coming at me. I remind myself that this could be a well disguised friend coming my way to help me learn better to adapt and experience competence in new ways. My deepest underearning often left me seeing myself as constantly deficient. When I don’t let myself bail out because I believe I’m inadequate, I experience how resilient and valuable I can be adapting to things I don’t like.