Impatience has been a major struggle of mine throughout my life. I've always wanted to be done with one chapter of school/work/life and onto the next. When I was in high school, I couldn't wait to be in college. When I was in college, I couldn't wait to be graduated and onto "real life". Now in "real life", I can't wait for the next season/promotion/big change.
I hadn't noticed this problem so acutely until recently. I felt very uncertain about the position that I was in at work (was it right for me, was I moving in the right direction, where I was going next, etc.) and quickly applied for another position within the company to see what options I had. I informed my boss of the application and he quickly pulled me aside for an impromptu meeting. He explained to me that careers were marathons, not sprints. The most impactful progress that I could be making at this point in my career was to gain mentors and sponsors so that others could look out for my career and help steer me to the correct place.
He was absolutely right. My impatience had taken over once again, and I needed to find a way to slow down and run the marathon. So that's exactly what I did; I began to run in 5Ks, which evolved to 10Ks, which then grew to Half Marathon training. I realized that graduating from college where you are sprinting from semester to semester towards graduation left me feeling like I had hit sand when trying to sprint at full-time work. When I began to shift my feeling of unease toward productivity to my personal life, it took quite a bit of pressure off of my professional life.
Since applying for the other position roughly 9 months ago, I earned another promotion in my current position. Patience paid off, and another lesson learned.
