If you’re reading this… It’s time to trust God’s timing.

Hey y’all! Welcome back to Tales of a Twenty-Something! 💘 I know it’s been quiet for the past few weeks, but I’m back now, and I have an amazing story to tell.

Almost exactly a year ago, I was at my old job meeting with my supervisor for our annual yearly review. Now, some background: I had been with the company for two years. I started off as an intern my senior year of college and was brought on full-time for an entry-level position. Thankfully, God never allowed me to struggle with the job search, which I am forever grateful for. In the intern position, they taught me all the basics of public relations—press release writing, compiling media reports, media lists, and such. I am forever grateful for the knowledge I acquired while at that job. I think I was pretty good at the work I was doing for the most part, but I lacked confidence due to imposter syndrome. Even with tasks I knew I could do (or if not, I could probably figure it out), I hesitated to put myself to the test, and it showed in my work. I didn’t volunteer for assignments when they needed it, and I didn’t share the great ideas I had for some of the accounts I was a part of.

I felt like I would be wrong with some of my suggestions or ideas. Anyway, I received a good review, but as expected, they said I needed to raise my hand more, and I still had some work to do. While the review and criticisms didn’t bother me, I was bothered when my coworkers—who joined the firm after I did—got promoted to higher positions after their yearly reviews, and I didn’t. How could that happen? I thought I was ready for this, and I had learned so much in my previous year that I thought was showing in my work. I was so sure that my time would have come by then, and it just…didn’t.

Fast forward about a month later, I announced my departure from the firm, for no reason other than that I had found a new position with a company better suited to my values and interests. There was no ill will with my leaving, and I will always appreciate the first company for giving me my first job experience. I left and moved to the new company. This company was much smaller but was more aligned with what I was interested in. I spent a year there, learning a new way of doing things but still applying the knowledge I gained at the old company. I took their feedback and worked on it with my fresh start at the new spot. I enjoyed the work I was doing and just hoped they thought I was doing well too.

Flashing forward even more to last week now, I had my first annual review with my new company (the one I left the first job for), on the exact day I started a year ago. My supervisor started the call off by telling me I was being promoted. Not only that, but I was being promoted to the EXACT position I wanted at my previous job. I was ECSTATIC. What are the chances??? It was finally time for me to be elevated. I spent my year working on what my last company told me I needed to fix, I brushed up my skills, gained some new skills, and got more experience in my field, and finally, I was moving up. It made me think…maybe I WASN’T ready last year. Maybe it WASN’T my time to be promoted. Maybe my timing ISN’T the right timing like I thought. Maybe I was ready in my head, but not really ready. This promotion reaffirmed for me what I already knew, but wasn’t taking into account — God’s timing is the only timing that matters. My timing or my life plan is nonexistent.

Okay, yes, we can have a plan for the way we want things to go and flow and an end goal of what we want to do with our lives, and set a plan for that. But, if and when things don’t go according to this plan we created, we cannot let that hinder us from continuing our journey. The way we want things to work out is not always the way they need to, or should. God always has his hand over our lives, our plans, our destiny, and he always allows things to go how things should go. Just because things aren’t working out the way you expected on the timing you expected, doesn’t mean that it will never work that way. And that applies to everything in life, not just work, but in relationships, major life milestones, any of your long-term goals, etc.

Trust that God is leading you where you need to go, at the pace you need to go. If I had been promoted before I was ready to, I would have proved to be unready or unfit and maybe even embarrassed myself. I challenge you, next time things aren’t working out the way you want them to, relax. Don’t stress out, because it’s working out exactly the way it should.

Things are working out for your good, and what is meant to be will always be. It just won’t be on your timing, it’ll be on God’s.