A few weeks ago I wrote about coming back to Halifax for a job interview. Not just any job interview, but the job interview. I won’t get into specifics, but it was a job that I had wanted for some years now, and had been working towards. The past few weeks, I struggled though the difficult selection process, including a full-day of interviews and tests and a separate two-hour interview the week after. And unfortunately, I didn’t make the final cut. I made the backup list.

Now, there’s two ways that you can look at situations like this, and it’s really about assigning meaning to a situation. “What does this mean to me?” The most obvious meaning is failure. I failed. I could be disappointed that after I dropped everything I had in Japan to come back and give it my best, I still came up short. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t assigned meanings like this in the past.

The other meaning I could assign would be to look at the situation as merely a setback to reaching my goal. As an opportunity to see exactly which skills and attitudes I need to strengthen to be at the top of the list next year. That if I really want this, I will use this as an opportunity to grow and learn, and let it strengthen my resolve. On the positive, I have to be happy that I made it as far as I did. Placing in the top five of over 100 candidates isn’t bad.

So I’m working on plan B now, which should be pretty amazing, and will set me up for a stronger application next year. If this goal is still important to me next year, I have 100% confidence I will be successful.

Yes, it hurts. But self-pity is not among the most constructive emotions. Someone I look up to once told me, “It’s not the shit that happens to us that dictates who we are and who we become. It’s the meanings that we assign to it and how we react. That’s what defines us.”

Oh, and I treated myself to a new (to me) motorcycle. Life is good.

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