It's been a while

One of the great things about my day job (I'm a mental health counselor intern) is that you see the value in things taking time. I have worked in both private and residential addiction facilities (my current job). I love what I do and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I do have issues with the system in place-big surprise there. I would elaborate, but that would take all night so I'll just point out a couple of things.

When you graduate with your Master's you have the great (mis)fortune of being branded as an intern. This means that you must 1.) Spend at least two years (no less than 100 weeks) getting 1,500 client hours. This is in addition to the 1,500 you are required to get to graduate-although not all those hours need be face to face-but two years is a long time. Being an intern also means 2.) Many places will not take you seriously when you apply for a job and 3.) some places refuse to pay you a decent wage because you are a "Intern." One place I know of paid interns as little as $11.00 an hour.

I have encountered both these situations in my nearly two year journey, but I have had the great fortune of working for two companies who, more or less, see the value in interns and their employees. But, as much of my future and licensure rests in the hands of the state, I abound with uncertainty and the state, as I understand it, is very good friends with Murphy (from murphy's law).

In addition to becoming a licensed therapist, I am also in the process of publishing a book. The process has been going on for just about a year. The publisher and I began working together in August and signed a contract in September and I submitted the final manuscript in November, While the event is quite literally a dream come true, I still don't have anything solid to hold in my hands.

There are days when I have all the confidence and surety of a lion and other days (often the very next) that I feel like nothing is or ever will work out. My book will never get published and I will never get licensed, I'm sure you know the drill. It's times like these (and countless others) that I am grateful for every client I have ever worked with because they have shown me the value of taking the time and letting things unfold on their own.

I have seen people put in months, sometimes years of hard work on a dream, a goal, a desire that they may never hold in their hands; I have seen the power of hard work+time firsthand. So, maybe you're a little bit like me, you're working on a dream or you have a dream, or a goal, but you haven't been able to hold anything in your hands. If so, let me encourage you to trust the process, to go with rather than fight the flow of time. I'm not saying to waste time, take a small step everyday and a large step when you can, and know that your work and time will eventually pay off.

It might not pay off in quite the way you had imagined, but just as a baby walks when it walks (no matter how many times it falls down) so your dream, your goal will walk when it walks. So take a moment today to appreciate how hard you've worked and how far you've come, and after you do that, take another moment to allow yourself to trust the process.

#time #dream #goal #slow #2018 #blog #work