Image provided by News Medical Life Sciences.
Dear friends,
Here we are, back to school! Hope you are bidding a fond farewell to summer and diving into a lovely fall routine. For me, this always feels like the start of the year, as I’ve written about before.
I re-learned an old lesson recently- it’s hard to do new things! In my personal life, I undertook a complex event planning and management task, and the experience reminded me that expertise isn’t always transferable. When you take on a task that is new to you, it will be much harder than work that you have already mastered. I had made the assumption that because I am a generally competent and efficient person, and because this task did not require any specific expertise, I could handle it. It wasn’t unfamiliar to me as an attendee, but I learned the hard way that there is a big difference between peripheral involvement and holding ultimate responsibility for any task. I panicked when I realized I just did not have enough time to get the needed work done. In the end, I would not have executed the event if my cousin had not stepped in and given me many hours of her time and the benefit of her experience in hospitality.
This experience echoed a recent conversation I had with a mentee who is launching their first independent intervention research project. They are in the stage of finalizing the intervention and planning the recruitment strategy, and they are finding every step to be a challenge. I recently reminded them that they’re doing this hard work for the first time. Even if they are not actively writing a paper or a grant, they are doing significant intellectual work when they are making all the decisions related to starting up a new study. Even if those decisions come in the form of emailing back and forth with the team, it is real work, and it is really hard when you’re doing it for the first time.
Comparing your work process with others rarely helps, especially when it is your first rodeo. Remember that your mentors stumbled and stressed when they were just getting started, and everyone has a steep learning curve when they try something new. This may seem obvious, but I hope it helps you be patient with yourself as you grow in your career. Let’s hope we all find the spirit to be optimistic beginners throughout our careers!
As always, please share widely and, if you are so inclined, sign up for the blog here. Keep in touch and do share good news so I can amplify your successes!
Warmly,
Urmimala