Timelines

I recently had a student stop into my office to discuss their current course load.

The conversation began just fine and somewhere in the middle the student began to cry.

Not unusual in my line of work at times.

The tears can be based on so many different things. Truly depends on the student and the issue.

In this particular case, like with many, the student was overwhelmed by it all, but mostly due to a timeline they were marking themselves against which they were already falling short of.

I sat and spoke to the student for a while and the jist of my conversation was to throw the timeline out the window.

You see, the timeline they were using was a timeline they had set for themselves before they entered college.

A timeline that didn’t account for so many different things.

The timeline had the student so stuck they couldn’t focus on the actual next step in the problem to actually get themselves to a solution.

So, here’s the thing about timelines.

They are arbitrary.

At times those around us impose them and other times we self-impose them.

They don’t account for life. Those circumstances that happen in our lives which we cannot account for, which cause shifts in these timelines. The moments where timelines can’t and shouldn’t matter because other things matter so much more.

They cause anxiety, pressure, stress, you name it, the timeline can cause it.

So, while timelines are great to keep goals in mind, the rigidity of said timelines end up causing more harm then good.

Ultimately, the timeline will work itself out based on your life.

You may not have as much control over it as you’d like but if the end goal/result is the same, does it truly matter?