How I Learned to Soar like an Eagle

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:32

There are some verses in the Bible that I've read a thousand times. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world." Philippines 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ." Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith." This includes the verse above. And yet, because those verses are well used and often uttered, it often takes an experience or an epiphany to truly appreciate their wisdom. And that is exactly what happened to me.

As one of the many people who lost their (movie theater) job as a result of the pandemic, I found the rug pulled out from under me as I was thrust into unemployment. But unlike the many people who decided to stay that way, I decided to find a new job so the lack of one wouldn't mess up my resume in the future. And as it turned out, Amazon was one of the few companies thriving in the midst of the virus. People were making a lot more delivery orders when they couldn't leave their homes. It was to the point where they basically hired me immediately after I put in the application. And suddenly, I went from two part-time jobs to a full-time job and from walking to work to having a used car in order to get to and from the building. Crazy.

But then came the job itself. As I previously established with a post talking about my issues with procrastination, I am not a fast person. Deadlines and time limits make me anxious. Which was why the evening of my first day at work found me absolutely despondent. See, my job at Amazon is to take the customer's items out of pods that come to my station and put them in totes to be sent off to the packing area. And they want you to do that FAST. The absolute minimum rate allowed without disciplinary action is 285 items per hour, a number that I was nowhere near close to on day one. I was so upset that I wanted to just quit right then and there, especially coming off of grad school. But before doing anything drastic, I went to the Bible.

"God. I don't know what I'm doing here. This seems like the worst possible job for me to have right now. I'm great with quality, but I'm bad with speed. And if I hurry, I'm afraid I'll just mess everything up. Please, lift me up as it says in Isaiah. Give me wings like eagles. Because I can't bear screwing up again."

Amazon offers several strategies on how to shave off precious seconds: hand coordination, optimal position, faster ways to bend down and get up, recognizing items with only a glance, and more. I used them all, and they WORKED. One week later, I went from having a lousy first day to achieving the minimum rate. I got myself into a consistent pattern of "Grab, scan, hit button. Grab, scan, hit button." And my rate kept increasing. Sure, there were off-days and even one warning for low productivity, but I kept at it. Two years later, I've gotten several days where I finished my shift as the number 1 item picker on the entire floor and at least eight accounts of being documented positive. That means that on eight separate occasions, my picking quality and speed were among the highest in the entire WAREHOUSE!

I now fully understand what it means to soar on wings like eagles. So many times in life I allowed myself to plateau or get comfortable too easily. It's why it took so long for me to quit my first lousy job. Because I was so afraid of not being able to find another one that I didn't even try. I got satisfied with the bare minimum of comfort because I thought that's all I deserved (more on THAT later). But at that moment, God gave me a taste of my full potential and let me push all those doubts and fears to the side. Because it turned out, the only thing that was actually in my way was me.