I got a new colleague last week, and every time I get a new colleague I remember the counsel a very wise former colleague gave me when I was new to her: begin as you intend to continue. It means don’t race out of the gate with a level of energy you can’t sustain. Think in terms of years, not weeks. The rewards for impressing people early are tangible, but not all that durable.
New colleagues provide a moment to revisit the beginning and how it has gone since. Have I continued in the way I intended when I started? In the year 2022, “intend” is doing a lot more work than before. Nobody intended the conditions of these past two years, and so in lots of ways how we started is not how we have continued. That feels mostly to the good.
Yet I am wondering these days if the intentions we started with still have something to offer, or if they’re gone for good.
YoRocko! 
I love “begin as you intend to continue.” Sometimes with new neighbors or colleagues, I also think of my dad’s advice about speaking in public — speak more slowly than you think you need to, because nerves will make you speed up, and you’ll wind up OK, not sounding too fast. I find myself starting relationships very slowly, reserving things until those nerves go away… or at least change. Thanks again.