Transition: tossing comfort out the window

My friend Tom has written a great book about living your faith in the workplace and he writes a compelling blog on the topic.

His postings about work hit home for me because I’ve recently transitioned out of full-time employment and into … well, I’m not sure yet. I left my old job, which I was good at and happy at, in the hopes of discovering some new, more creative, more interesting version of my old writing self. I’m just one month into this transition and so far, that novelist, that creative writer/entrepreneur/history book publisher who I’d envisioned all winter long has yet to walk onto the property. And so, I’m nervous – and befuddled.

Another wise friend told me to stop being in such a rush and give myself time to settle into farm life. Plant a garden, she said. Feed your chickens, she said. Make your nest. I think she was telling me to slow down and be patient – two areas where I’m unpracticed. I spend twelve years in a deadline-driven environment; slow was never a good choice there.

And so I find myself pulled by the lure of project work, filling my hours with tasks for this client and that client, providing service that helps me measure my productivity in the way that I am accustomed, which puts me in my comfort zone. But, what I really need to do is follow my friend’s advice to slow down and wait. That’s tough because I’ve never been good at waiting.