Holding Patterns

The secret codes of life—whether presented as a gift or a burden—go totally unappreciated.

- David Eagleman (Sum: Tales from the Afterlives)

Airplanes often can’t land at their designated airport on their own schedule. If they’re too early or something else happened, the air traffic controller will ask them to circle the airport in their holding pattern until it is their chance to touch down.

Most of the influential factors in that regard has nothing to do with that flight, airplane or pilot. It is unlikely that they had control or even influence on many of the things that has now put them into a holding pattern.

The same is often true for us.

It is great to have a vision for the future, whether that is about us, our project or our businesses.

But sometimes we find ourselves in a holding pattern of sorts, where progress to our next destination is on pause.

Maybe our timing is off and we simply arrived too early, which means waiting for other things to fall in place.

Maybe we managed to travel too fast, because we didn’t have the right resources (learning and experience) on board.

Sometimes we’re responsible for taking the next steps to get us out of that holding pattern.

Often it is just a case a waiting for the other things that we can’t control (and probably can’t even identify completely).

Either way, we should remain grounded and never overestimate our ability to exact change.

Whether you believe in some kind of higher power air traffic controller. Or that it takes a whole village to raise a kid. There is always a component of our journey that is not up to us.