INSPIRATION
Never get comfortable.
The ground moved on me a couple weeks back. I won't get into the particulars, but I walked into a normal week and walked out of it standing somewhere different than where I started.
I had a Lil Wayne song running in my head before I made it back to my desk. "Don't you ever get too comfortable." That was the whole message. And I had less than 24 hours before I had to sit down with what it meant. Not for anybody else. For me.
Three questions started running on a loop.
One. Does this open something up for me?
Two. What if it doesn't?
Three. What do I actually want the answer to be?
Truly and dearly yall, my first instinct was to spiral. Replay the conversation. Guess at what it meant. Run the same three laps at 2am.
I didn't. I've done the spiral before, and it has never once produced a clean decision. The spiral feels like doing the work. It's just noise dressed up as motion.
So I sat.
Here's what I've learned every time the ground moves without warning. Answering fast is the trap. The move is to name the real questions honestly, to yourself, before you say a word to anyone else. Because the question underneath is always bigger than the one on the surface. What kind of leader am I becoming now? What does the next chapter need to look like to be worth it? Is this the work that still brings me joy?
You never know when the ground is going to move. What you can control is whether you meet it with panic or with real questions.
Sit with yours this week.
COLLABORATION
Herminia Ibarra wrote a book called Working Identity.
Her thesis is a hard one to swallow if you're a planner. She says we don't think our way into a new career. We act our way into one. The questions you're sitting with won't get answered by more sitting. They get answered by small experiments. Test a possible next self. See what fits. Revise.
Sitting with the questions is where you start. Moving through them is where you finish.
Go to the source → Herminia Ibarra, Working Identity
▶ The TEF Show — This month with Earl we've been unpacking what it looks like to keep building yourself inside a giant company. If you missed the full episode, this is your reminder. Watch the clip →
EXECUTION
Your 1% this week. Write down the three real questions you're sitting with about your work right now. Not the surface ones. The ones under them.
Then pick one and take one 30-minute action this week that tests it. A coffee. A doc. A phone call. Something that hands you new information instead of another lap around the same thought.
If you don't know what your three questions even are, that's the loop. Take The Invisible Score. It's free, 20 minutes, and it'll show you which loop is still open in your career right now, so you can stop guessing at the question and start sitting with the real one. Download it here →
What's the ground under your feet right now? Solid or shifting? Hit reply with one word.
PASS IT ON
Forward this to one person you know who's at a fork right now. They'll know.
THE EXTRA
Closing the month on Beyoncé's Bigger, from The Lion King: The Gift.
She wrote it for her son. It hits like a sermon for anyone standing at a fork wondering if they're built for what's next. Put it on this week with the lyrics in front of you.
— DéRecco
The Invisible Interview · The Invisible Score · The TEF Show
