Host Erin McMahon addresses the times when we are in between things in life, in that limbo space where we’re past one thing and not yet settled on another. It’s the gaps in between life in which we must wait that are often the hardest to deal with. Why can’t we just know the answers immediately? Why is there a waiting period? What good is waiting? Those are the questions at the heart of this episode that Erin examines from her own experience and a place of spiritual understanding.

When Erin decided to switch jobs from marketing at a small AI startup and followed the advice of a friend in looking into Web3, she found that she immediately knew Web3 was what she wanted to work in. Having decided the direction, she encountered that in-between space where she had made the decision to leave the first job and knew what job she wanted but hadn’t found it yet. Those periods are frustrating and make us impatient, we want to move, and we want things now. It was through reading a storybook to her toddler, a book on waiting, that she realized waiting was the right place for her to be until the best job could be found. Erin describes why waiting primes us for the best outcome and how valuable it is to understand that waiting is necessary for things to come together. She explains how to connect with the inner voice that can calm impatience and give more guidance while waiting. The lessons she learned are now ones she shares with us so we can discover that though waiting is hard, it’s worth it.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• The Lively Show podcast by Bella Lively

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Contact Erin McMahon: 

• Website
• Instagram
  
  

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Transcript

Erin McMahon: [00:00:03] Hello and welcome to Seek the Magic. This is Erin here. It is a lovely Friday afternoon in North Carolina in the summer, but it's not yet as humid as it usually is. We are enjoying the dehumidified air while we can. Today I wanted to talk about waiting and being in the period of limbo or in between when things are happening. In parts of our life we have, you know, a moment where we decide we want something or we find out there is an issue or a decision to be made or a decision to be made by us or others, and in between the period of deciding or finding out the problem or identifying something that we want and getting to the conclusion, there's usually a period of waiting. And I have faced this before and currently facing this in a few areas of my life. And, you know, I've certainly faced this before. And so I wanted to just talk about it a little bit and, you know, discuss what is the point of waiting? I have to tell you, my mind is always like, I need to know right now. I want to solve the problem. In human design I'm A51 and one of those elements of it is solve the problem right now. Get to a resolution. And in astrology, I'm a Leo and a Virgo rising. And so it's very much like let's put energy towards this. Let's come to a resolution.

Erin McMahon: [00:01:47] And throughout my spiritual journey and moving from the mind to the centered self, I've come to realize how important it is to wait and to appreciate the gap and time between what is and what we want to be. And you know, when we find out the result of something or the way something is going to go in our life. This is very frustrating for my mind. And since I've started meditating and doing breathwork, I've certainly taken these practices to help calm my mind about this. In my personal life a few years ago, I wanted to get into the Web3 space, so I had been marketing leader at a small AI startup that I still do consulting work for, but I fell into Web3. One of my friends said, oh, you're going to love this space. You should learn more about it. And I did, and I said, I want to work in Web3. I want to work in Web3 right now. And I think I determined that I wanted to make this shift in career direction in March or April of 2022. My son was about nine months old at the time, and I thought about it, and I started looking for jobs and I was like, I immediately want to switch. I've made this decision. I'm really enthusiastic. All this excitement in me is just bursting and let's make a change happen right away.

Erin McMahon: [00:03:21] Positive aspect of my personality is that when I get excited about something, I really get excited about it and I totally leaned into it. Which, you know, speaking of human design before is characteristic of a manifesting generator, which will link to human design basics if you're interested. But basically, this personality and blueprint means that if you get inspired by something, or if manifesting generators get inspired by something, then they really get into it and they get into it and they go, go, go. And that is just characteristic of the personality type. And usually they're going in interested in a few things or maybe other people would consider many things. So in this situation wanted to switch job, wanted to dive in immediately, and wanted to find the perfect company. In the Web3 space obviously there, well, maybe not so obviously, in the Web3 space there are a lot of small startup companies. It's very fragmented. There are lots of innovative types of technology happening in all different levels in hardware and DeFi and infrastructure, many different areas. And so there's a lot of different opportunities, and it's important to look and find the right one and really get a sense of the landscape. So, you know, I knew this, my mind knew this, but my mind also had this, you know, fiery sense of moving forward. And I had to wait and sort of both do my research and also feel from my sense of self what felt right and what felt like the right company to work for.

Erin McMahon: [00:05:08] As I was going through this process, we, of course, as one does with small kids, have a bunch of small kids books. And my toddler and I were reading a book by Mo Willems called 'Waiting Is Not Easy'. So as the title indicates, the lesson, the story goes that one of the main characters, Pinkie, brings a, has a gift or a surprise for his friend Gerald. And he goes, Gerald, I have a surprise for you. And Gerald goes, that's great. I'm so excited. What is this surprise? And Pinkie goes, the surprise isn't here yet. And the whole book goes through back and forth between Pinkie and Gerald, saying, you know, Gerald says, I really want to know the surprise. And Pinkie goes, it's not here yet. You're going to have to wait. And then he goes, can I guess, can I guess what it is? And it's a really adorable book. At the conclusion of the book, Gerald is completely frustrated and says, Pinkie, it's getting dark. We've been waiting all day for the surprise. I don't even want it anymore. What's the point? And then Pinkie goes, look! Look at the sky! And his surprise is the beautiful night sky that they can share and enjoy together. I love this book for the overall message it brings, certainly for young kids, because their sense of waiting is much different than adults, but also for adults and specifically for me.

Erin McMahon: [00:06:41] I need to be reminded that waiting is not easy. But you know what? It is and it can be beautiful. Because in that gap time you have a sense of wonder, a sense of mystery, sometimes getting that immediate surprise, in Gerald's case, he couldn't have gotten the surprise immediately because Pinkie first mentioned it during the day. So he cou...