The New Crop: Issue #34
the allure of fruit snacks + a poem + how to think about your career
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: A poem: permission to acknowledge progress
📚 Read: How to Think About Your Career
😆 Today’s Laugh
This is simultaneously funny and impressive, until the end when the orangutan can’t actually have a fruit snack. :(
💭 Today’s Thought
What follows is a poem that I turn to whenever I’m feeling discouraged about how much more there is to learn, how insurmountable a challenge ahead seems, or how much work there is still to do…
In this quiet moment
I give myself
permission to acknowledge my progress;
to focus less on the distance
I still have left to go,
and more on the mighty distance
I have come.- Beau Taplin, “This Quiet Moment”
A moment of pause to appreciate your progress doesn’t mean you’re taking your foot off the gas pedal or being complacent.
Instead, you’re creating space for perspective and appreciation, which unlock, as if by magic, extra energy and capacity you didn’t know you had.
🖊️ 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!):
Looking back on the last 6-12 months, what progress can you acknowledge yourself for? How about your team or organization?
What did it require of you and/or your team/organization to achieve that progress?
What emotions (if any) can you pinpoint as you reflect on the progress you’ve made?
📚 Today’s Read
How to Think About Your Career
“Here’s the thing though: your career, like your life, moves forward whether you think about it or not. If you don’t think about it, then you’re putting faith in the winds. Maybe you’ll end up somewhere you’ve always wanted to go. Maybe not. Why take that chance when you can captain your own sails?” - Julie Zhuo
In this article, Julie Zhuo, author of the excellent book The Making of a Manager, shares what she wished she had known about her career earlier in life. Check it out!
See you next week!
xo,
Anne