Don't quit. Get curious.

Oh hi everyone! 

I've been quiet lately. You probably didn't notice. (Good. As it should be.)

I have a general rule: when I don't have anything meaningful to add, it's better to just say nothing. A novel concept, I know!

I have a tendency — maybe you do, too? — to want to bail when things feel beige. (My mom's saying) 

Flat. Uninspired. Not particularly exciting. My first instinct is: what's next?!

But here's what I keep coming back to this week: This is the work.

Just like fitness, life (and your body) doesn't reward constant reinvention, stopping and starting, and blowing the whole thing up every time you miss a week. It rewards staying the course. Which is a concept so rarely portrayed in our culture.

We see major transformations (before and after!), overnight successes, and highlight reels without any footage of the boring middle.

But in reality, most of the good stuff happens in the unremarkable middle. The parts that people don't post about. 

So the reframe I've been using lately:

Instead of focusing on the urge to quit or on a specific problem or struggle, get curious about how the story ends. (Please let the record reflect I didn't invent this idea, but it certainly has stuck with me for the past few months.) 

Not: How do I fix this?Not: How do I get from A to B?

Instead: I wonder how this turns out.

That's it. It takes the pressure off. Replaces uncertainty with curiosity. It's weirdly powerful and gets you out of the intellectual perspective so you can take a step back from whatever you're in the thick of. 

And if everything feels the same, day after day after day— this is the other thing I keep thinking about:

Increase your surface area.

My friend Paige told me about this concept. Expand your exposure.

New conversations, new environments, new ways of moving or thinking or working. Sometimes we don't need a full reset (and sometimes we do!). Just a small shift in the direction of something different.

XO,