Transition Phase

With my promotion at work has come a lenghty transition phase which is beginning to wrap up. One of the biggest challenges with transition phases is that your tasks change so rapidly that it keeps you on you toes for quite some time. From jumping through hoops to doing some serious growth, transition phases have a little bit of everything and seem to endure much longer than you think they will. Training a repalcement has been challenging and a little frightening. I found that letting go of your old tasks is harder than I would have thought. You want them done right but know that the new person needs to learn how to do them. I know this and tried quite hard to allow them to learn by doing but I often find myself fighting a desire to just do it myself as it seems easier at the time. And then there is learning your new job. New challenges are shaking up my life at work and also seem to carry over to my thoughts in my off time. I generally try to avoid thinking about work while I am at home, but since I have been learning my new job, I find my brain working to solve work problems when I least expect (and sometimes desire) it. Then there is all the crap that you have to do that muddles the important tasks. I had to recall my work and residential histroy for the last ten years. To frame how ridiculous this was for me, I had to put my elementry school on an application. Then there is a qualifying exam that I have to take tomorrow. I had a review session today to prepare for what would be on the test. This was a major hoop to jump through. Not only did the teacher essentially tell us what the questions were on the test, but he also gave us some answers directly because the answers for the test were wrong since the test has not been updated for about a decade. Apparently no one cares enough about this test to even make sure that the answer key is current. The strangest thing about transition phases is you have this major shake-up from your routine that challenges, scares, and annoys you only to eventually come out with a new routine on the other side. I continuously find it really interesting how essential routine is to everything we do (See 'Programmed Responses')