The Long View

Quite a few years ago I had a job interview in a small Nebraska town for an athletic director position. It was a beautiful little town with a strong academic and athletic tradition and I thought it was the perfect fit for me. At the time, my wife and I were living in a small town outside of Lincoln and we decided that we would travel together and check out the town. We agreed that I would get the skinny on the school during the interview process and she would scout the town while I was in my interviews. After all, interviews aren't just for people to get to know you, it is a time for you to get to know the people and community. On the day of the interview, we packed up and drove three hours to town and left in plenty of time to do some driving around ahead of time. My wife then dropped me off at the Superintendent's office and drove away. I had four interviews that day with the Superintendent, a teacher group, a student group, and the Board of Education. In each one, I expressed my desire to be an athletic director and how my background and connections would make me the right person for the job. During each of the interviews I read the people and observed how they operated and I came to the conclusion that I could absolutely do the job because the people and the resources were in place to do things the right way. I absolutely nailed the interview and knew that I was going to be a strong candidate for consideration. After the interviews were over, I met up with my wife and I could immediately tell that she was in the same place as I was. She felt the town would be a great place to live, work, and raise a family. We drove away that afternoon thinking about all the possibilities, looking at real estate online, and really planning for our future in that small town. A couple of days later, I got the phone call that shattered those dreams. The school had gone with a different candidate. I found out later that one of the things that was discussed about my candidacy was the fact that I was born and raised in Omaha and the fear that some of the members of the committee had about me was that I was just going to take the job for a few years to gain experience and then bolt for Omaha for a bigger school. When I heard this, I was heartbroken. I wasn't looking at that job for the experience, but rather, as a place where I could lay down roots. I was frustrated because I knew I could do the job and would have rocked it, but ultimately, it wasn't meant to be.

I think about this experience from time to time and it serves as a reminder that the long view of things actually serves me better if I make the most of it. In this specific case, the long view propelled me into looking at the principalship as my path instead of athletics. It led me to great experiences in different school districts with a ton of people that I would never have met or learned from had I gotten that job in the small Nebraska town. I certainly don't regret the experience I had or the opportunity that was afforded to me to interview for the athletic director job, but I do kick myself for wasting so much time kicking myself and questioning the reasons I didn't get the job when I could have been focusing on what the experience was leading me towards. Ultimately, that specific circumstance was not a destination, but rather a stop on my journey forward to a better opportunity, and for that, I am grateful.

The long view is a tough pill to swallow when you are impatient. We live in a world where immediate gratification is desirable and if it doesn't come our way, we waste a ton of time thinking about what could have been and downplaying the opportunities for growth that we can learn from through disappointment and failure. The long view challenges us to look at the short term outcomes as an opportunity to imagine our long term future. None of us really know what is in store for us in the future, but taking the long view approach and being optimistic about what lies ahead is certainly a better alternative to regretting the short term setbacks and being pessimistic about everything because things aren't going your way. 

In the end, we all need to make a decision on whether or not we want to adopt the long view philosophy. Doing so isn't going to guarantee you happiness and you will certainly experience your fair share of disappointment and failure along the way. What you will gain, however, is the appreciation that with each disappointment and setback there will be an opportunity right around the corner if you are only patient enough to wait for it. You don't know when the opportunity will present itself, but you can be certain that when it does, you will be thankful that you kept moving forward.

#Onward #Embrace