The New Crop: Issue #113
letting feedback shape you instead of name you + "the case for ambition"
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: Letting feedback shape you instead of name you
📚 Read: The Case for Ambition
😀 Today’s Smile
💭 Today’s Thought
There’s a difference between letting feedback shape you and letting it name you. One is formation. The other is fusion. And when we fuse our identity with what others say — good or bad — we become unsteady, living at the mercy of whatever opinions blow through the room.
— Dan Foster in The Five Laws of Receiving Feedback (Without Falling to Pieces)
Recently, I came up with a list of words that I believe describe the essence of me.
Not titles or accomplishments—just qualities that have been with me since childhood, before the world told me who I should be. Words like playful, caring, and curious.
I’ve started repeating them to myself. Quietly. Often. Especially when I receive hard feedback.
It’s not about ignoring critique. It’s about remembering who I am first—so I can build on that foundation rather than crumble beneath it.
The more rooted you are in your own identity, the more spacious and creative your response to feedback can become.
🖊️ Today’s Reflection
If you’re new to journaling, I highly encourage you to read Nancy Adler’s article: Want to be an outstanding leader? Keep a journal.
This week, find a quiet place and gift yourself 10 minutes to reflect on any of these prompts (or invent your own!):
What would it look like to let feedback shape you?
What’s something you yearn to be free from, or free to do?
📚 Today’s Read
Ambition used to be a virtue. Somewhere along the way, it became a vice.
Once a cornerstone of the American ethos—synonymous with self-reliance, upward mobility, and personal agency—ambition is now more often associated with selfishness, power-hunger, or hollow striving. We’re suspicious of those who want too much, push too hard, or dream too big.
But what if we’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater? What if ambition isn’t the enemy of virtue, but its engine?
In this article, Jeff DeGraff offers a powerful definition of ambition and a reflection on all the ways it can take shape in our lives today. Check it out!
See you next week!
xo,
Anne