{"id":204,"date":"2019-09-12T05:50:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T05:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/?p=204"},"modified":"2019-09-12T05:50:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T05:50:08","slug":"sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever applied for a job that you really wanted \u2026 only to be crushed and disappointed when you didn\u2019t get it?<\/p>\n

Me too. Dozens of time. I felt frustrated when I didn\u2019t get what I wanted. I\u2019ve been fired and laid off, too. It\u2019s painful. It hurt my feelings, frustrated my ambitions, and crushed my dreams \u2013 or so I thought at the time.<\/p>\n

I recall years ago, when I didn\u2019t get a job I wanted at a television network in Los Angeles. I thought I was perfect for the position and was so disappointed when they gave the job to someone else. I pouted for weeks.<\/p>\n

A year later, that job \u2013 and the entire department \u2013 were eliminated.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few\u00a0years after that experience, I applied for a higher level position at the university where I was working. The dean gave the job to someone else \u2013 someone who wasn\u2019t as qualified as I thought I was.<\/p>\n

Six months after that, that position was eliminated.<\/em><\/p>\n

About twenty years ago, a well-respected\u00a0newspaper executive encouraged\u00a0me to apply\u00a0for a job in Chicago. Alas, I didn\u2019t get the job and was so<\/em> disappointed, as I would have loved the opportunity to work with that executive.<\/p>\n

But in less than a year, he left Chicago to move to Maine to head up another media company, and not long after that, the Chicago newspaper was sold.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some\u00a0years ago, the newspaper I worked for offered me a buyout package as part of their efforts to gradually downsize the company. I was hurt that they didn\u2019t value me enough to want to keep me. In fact, I was so hurt and so angry that I wrote a book about my experience: “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Twenty years later, the\u00a0book I wrote has sold over 400,000 copies and is now published in 23 languages worldwide \u2026 while my former newspaper employer has gone bankrupt.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. A blessing can turn out to be a curse … and misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.\u00a0We don’t really know for sure until time has passed and we\u00a0have the advantage of hindsight.<\/p>\n

\"BJ's<\/a>
BJ’s new book (with Sam Beasley) is “Your Life Is Your Prayer”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever applied for a job that you really wanted \u2026 only to be crushed and disappointed when you didn\u2019t get it? Me too. Dozens of time. I felt frustrated when I didn\u2019t get what I wanted. I\u2019ve been fired and laid off, too. It\u2019s painful. It hurt my feelings, frustrated my ambitions, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[102,212,185,211,213],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blessings","tag-disappointment","tag-hidden-blessings","tag-misfortune","tag-new-perspective"],"yoast_head":"\nSometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing - The Power of Positive Doing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. Misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing - The Power of Positive Doing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. Misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Power of Positive Doing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"www.facebook.com\/bjgallagher.9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-12T05:50:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/files\/2019\/04\/YourLifeIsYourPrayer-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BJ Gallagher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BJ_Gallagher\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing - The Power of Positive Doing","description":"The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. Misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing - The Power of Positive Doing","og_description":"The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. Misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html","og_site_name":"The Power of Positive Doing","article_author":"www.facebook.com\/bjgallagher.9","article_published_time":"2019-09-12T05:50:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/files\/2019\/04\/YourLifeIsYourPrayer-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"BJ Gallagher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@BJ_Gallagher","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html","name":"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing - The Power of Positive Doing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/files\/2019\/04\/YourLifeIsYourPrayer-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2019-09-12T05:50:08+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-12T05:50:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/#\/schema\/person\/292eb60ddcbaff3a3f8e410708bd9b10"},"description":"The Taoist philosophy teaches that we never really know whether something is bad or good. Misfortune often turns out to be a blessing.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/files\/2019\/04\/YourLifeIsYourPrayer-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/files\/2019\/04\/YourLifeIsYourPrayer-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/2019\/09\/sometimes-not-getting-what-you-want-is-a-blessing.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sometimes Not Getting What You Want Is a Blessing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/","name":"The Power of Positive Doing","description":"Beliefnet Voices - BJ Gallagher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/#\/schema\/person\/292eb60ddcbaff3a3f8e410708bd9b10","name":"BJ Gallagher","description":"BJ Gallagher is an inspirational author and speaker. She writes business books that educate and empower, women\u2019s books that enlighten and entertain, and gift books that inspire and inform. Whether her audience is corporate executives, working women, or a group of college student, her message is powerful, positive, as well as practical. She motivates and teaches with empathy, understanding, and more than a little humor. BJ\u2019s international best-seller, \"A Peacock in the Land of Penguins\" (Berrett-Koehler; third edition 2001), is now in 23 languages and has sold over 400,000 copies. Her recent books include: \"The Power of Positive DOING\" (Simple Truths) and \"If God Is Your Co-Pilot, Switch Seats\" (Hampton Roads). Her new book, \"Your Life Is Your Prayer\" (Mango Publishing) will be out in April 2019. BJ and her books have been featured on CBS Evening News, the Today show, Fox News, PBS, CNN, and other television and radio programs. She is quoted almost weekly in various newspapers, women\u2019s magazines, and websites including O the Oprah magazine, Redbook, Woman\u2019s World, Ladies Home Journal, First for Women, Time, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and MSNBC.com, among others. BJ also conducts seminars and workshops. Her clients include: IBM, Chevron, Nissan, John Deere Credit Canada, Volkswagen, Farm Credit Services of America, Raytheon, Marathon Realty (Canada), U.S. Department of Interior, Veterans Administration, among others. BJ is the former manager of training and development for the Los Angeles Times, where she was responsible for management development, sales training, customer service seminars, diversity training, specialized programs for women, and the development of high potential managers.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.bjgallagher.com","www.facebook.com\/bjgallagher.9","www.instagram.com\/bj_gallagher","www.linkedin.com\/BJ Gallagher","https:\/\/x.com\/BJ_Gallagher"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/author\/bgallagher"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thepowerofpositivedoing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}