35 - and one week!

The first week of my 35th birthday has taught me that I must learn the art of pacing myself. I must confess - I rush a lot. I’m always hurrying up to do this and hurrying up to do that. Early on in my career I became a pro at the art of multi tasking and meeting deadlines. My actions always reflected a schedule. A schedule I had to meet.

However today, my husbands gentle persistence paid off. I learned that meeting a goal wasn’t necessarily as important as understanding the journey of getting there.

I know this. I teach this. How could I so easily forget that it is the journey in life that is important - not the destination. Nevertheless, today I did forget - because I was rushing.

What should have been an exciting experience of opening a new bank account and depositing a healthy check, turned into a lesson of lack of preparation. I considered our deposit - just one of the many things “I” wanted to “check of the list.” What I failed to acknowledge was that it was something “we” planned to experience together. I forfeited turning to my husband and sharing “our” ideas – all because I was anxious to “get it done.”

I quickly realized that I took the joy of discovery out of learning and sharing with my husband.

My husband is a patient man. At times, I am not. My lack of preparation proved that I didn’t do my homework. For starters, I was unsure of what bank to go to. What type of account we needed to open, and what we needed in order to make it a successful transaction. I didn’t slow down and turn to my husband so that “we” could make the best banking decision for our future.

It took only one sweet look from my loving husband to remind me that he is my friend, my partner, and my biggest supporter. His display of patience and kind words reminded me that it is the experiences that we share in our journey that count – not how fast we can check things off our “to-do” list.

We didn’t get to deposit our money into a new bank account today. However, something greater happened. I learned to slow down and pace myself.

Corporate banking here I come.