Hard experiences can lead to good things — if you let them.

I had a tough conversation with my manager last week. Some expectations missed. Difficult feedback to receive after working extremely hard for a month.

Reflecting on it with a colleague, I realized something uncomfortable but useful: some of the work I’ve been doing might not be where my gifts are best leveraged. I can do it, but it doesn’t play to my strengths. And some of that misfit is baked into how my current role is defined.

That got me thinking: maybe there’s an opportunity here.

Instead of forcing myself into a function that feels like walking uphill, I can start making a case for a role where I’m more in flow — where what I’m naturally good at and what the team needs line up better.

I don’t have it figured out yet. None of this is tidy. But I do know this: tough moments are often openings in disguise.

After enough reps with hard things, you start to understand (in your bones) that the rough part is not the end — even when it feels like it in the moment.

There is almost always:

• a way to grow
• a way to adjust your path
• a way to keep your momentum in life

If you allow that perspective to exist.

That’s the key: not pretending it feels good, not bypassing the sting, but holding the door open in your mind for the possibility that this might be the start of something better aligned, not just the end of something that hurt.