January 7, 2026
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
When I worked at McKinsey, I was a rather typical early-career consultant, over-thinking and worrying about my professional development. I recall advice given to me by the managing director of our Southern California office, after I shared with him my fairly petulant needs and anxieties about promotion timelines, constructive feedback, and all these obviously minor matters that seemed over-magnified back then:
“When you’re on a boat, it’s easy to feel the choppiness of the water around you. When you feel that, just look out to the horizon. You’ll see it’s still. Try to focus on that stable horizon.” What he was telling me, in essence, was to zoom out. To have some perspective. To not be mired in the minutiae of the day-to-day, but rather to have the patience to think and plan much longer-term. Hard advice to absorb as a 24-year old who had a detailed life plan codified in PowerPoint.
But it was the right counsel. When in the bog, zoom out and ask yourself, will this matter in five years? Ten years? Twenty years? Chances are, it won’t. It won’t even register. In the off-chance it would, then sure, give it some thought and let it marinate. But if not, let it go. Surrender. Trust. Keep your eyes steady, on the horizon, where the calmer waters await.