When Restlessness Signals Growth

The Two Sides of Learning

During a recent conversation with Lisa, I realized I’ve been living in what I call learning in theory mode–constantly collecting new insights and absorbing ideas–but not creating space to actually organize or apply them. Meanwhile, one of my clients was experiencing the opposite: she was so immersed in learning in action that she’d mastered everything in her current role and felt restless for what’s next. It was so interesting to sit across the zoom room from her, hearing so many of the same feeling words I was experiencing coming out of her mouth, but as symptoms of the *other* side of the polarity.

It’s funny that this message continues to resurface for me. In March at the Women’s Leadership Conference, this polarity came up for me and I examined what it would look like to integrate these poles (or harness the strengths of both sides).