Member-only story

Full Speed Ahead Is No Way to Live Life

I've been a rocket and now I want to stay grounded.

Vanessa Torre
4 min readFeb 7, 2020
Photo by Daniel Mayovskiy via Unsplash

No matter where we want to go, there’s only one way we seem to want to get there. Fast.

I’ve always been a freakishly goal-oriented person. Of course, I’m also impatient. You put these two things together and the end result can be a disastrous mountain of stress.

The unfortunate thing about pushing ourselves to move as fast as we can toward wherever we’re going is that we never appreciate the journey. It’s like driving 80 miles an hour down the freeway, only watching the exit signs, and never looking around at the scenery.

I’ve always moved faster in life than I normally should have. I’m not quite sure why that is other than an overwhelming need to succeed, to achieve something, to be someone.

Another downside to moving forward fast is that once we get where we’re going, we’re never satisfied. I’m the kind of person that is never satisfied.

Nearly destroying myself

In my mid-30s, I had the world in my hands. I had a wonderful budding career. I moved up quickly. In the span of seven years, I was promoted four times. I should’ve been perfectly happy where I was. I wasn’t.

--

--

Vanessa Torre
Vanessa Torre

Written by Vanessa Torre

Top 10 feminist writer. Writing, coaching, and relentlessly hyping women in midilfe. linktr.ee/Vanessaltorre Email: vanessa@vanessatorre.com

Responses (1)