IMPATIENCE, THE ACHILLES’ HEEL OF MILLENNIALS
By Vanessa Kimoro
Millennials are such a smart generation. Tech-savvy, innovative, passionate, confident and expressive. Whilst we have seen innovative companies come up in Kenya such as M-farm, Sky Garden, Sendy and Twiga Foods, our generation is also having bold conversations on governance, mental health, sexual assault and inclusivity. A millennial myself, I can relate to the need for impact, idealistic change in society and innovation mania. However, there is one thing that we need to appreciate and that is the value of delayed gratification. I say this guilty myself for over valuing what can be done in a short time, while undervaluing what can be done in the long term.
In his book, Outliers, Malcom Gladwell highlights that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at your craft, which is approximately 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 10 years. For instance, when we see Kenyan athletes dominating long-distance races, together with Ethiopians, we need to look back at how long they have been doing it. We can see talent, but most of them also ran on a daily basis running errands or going to school as young children and hence built the capacity and endurance to master these distances.
Enough conversations with baby boomers (those born between 1946–1964) and some Gen X professionals (born between 1965–1980) highlighted that we are too impatient. Like many of you, I thought it was discounting one’s abilities to succeed at a smarter and faster rate. I have come to appreciate that to build a good foundation at anything, it takes hard work, counsel and insight. This is a true testament to good relationships, friendships, careers and businesses. When they say ‘Life is a journey’, it really is; a step at a time, a day taken at a time.
I must say, having been self-employed for three years now, it takes time to build a good foundation. First step was to get clear on what I would be growing my career in and how that aligned with my life purpose, then identifying how to put the resources (time, people and finances) at hand together, launch and learn along the way. I still have more to do and learn, but I have grown to be at peace with pacing myself so as to avoid self-imposed afflictions like burn out. My hope is that in your journey, you will be fully present and take each day for what it has to offer. Patience is the undervalued super-power.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
