Making It Stick

Time to read: 1 minute

It's a lotus vase. Or officially called a "frog."

Six weeks ago, focus felt impossible.

You were buried. Reactive. Jumping between tasks and ending the day wondering where the time went.

I hope things feel more manageable.

To review, you've

  • Shaped your environment instead of fighting it.
  • Worked with your brain and energy’s natural rhythms.
  • Protected time for the deep work that moves your career.
  • Give yourself guilt-free rest.

None of this is magic. It's practice, and like any practice, it takes time, and you will slip.

A crazy week hits. The boundaries erode. The phone creeps back onto the desk. You cancel the fun for something urgent. That's not failure. That's just how a full, rich life works.

The question is how quickly you notice and come back.

That's the whole game. Do your best. Slip and recover. Start again. Skip the part where you judge or beat yourself up.

Learn to consciously reset. Take ten minutes at the end of the week to reflect. What worked? What didn't? What's one thing to protect or change next week? Small, consistent reflection compounds over time and creates powerful new habits. New habits transform your life, one step at a time.

Keep going! The skills you've built these past six weeks, focus, deep work, and recovery, aren't just productivity tools. They're career tools. They're what makes you someone who does exceptional work, builds a strong reputation, and is ready when opportunity appears.

Which, as we've talked about, is how careers advance.

This week: Set up your weekly reset. Pick a time — Friday afternoon, Sunday evening, whatever fits — and put it on the calendar. Ten minutes. Every week.

That's the whole practice.

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? They can join us here.

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me I read everyone.

Next week: Your environment is talking to you. Let's make sure it's saying the right things.

 

Should You Work In Your Passion?

Time to read: 1 min, 3 seconds

People tell me, "I want to work in my passion," or "I'm not passionate about my current job."

Oh dear. Finding your passion and working in it for the rest of your life is a lot of pressure.

Young professionals feel like they must find their passion and then turn it into work. My opinion? Passion is bunk.

That said, everyone has passions…many, many of them. Those are the things you enjoy, get lost doing, and love to think and talk about. A friend of mine likes to say, "You might have a passion for kitten snuggling, and that isn't going to make a career." I have a passion for making charm bracelets, and that isn't going to pay college tuition.

It's high pressure to expect to feel passionate about your job. Some people do. Others love their job and don't feel passionate about it. Still others enjoy their job well enough and satisfy their passions outside work.

It's ok for a job to simply be a job, something that supports your life and works in total.

Relieve yourself of the pressure to work in your passion. That's a recipe for being dissatisfied with what is, and maybe what is looks pretty great once you release that pressure value.

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I hope this helps!