#4 - Will you persist, pivot, or concede?
Kara Monroe
Welcome to the 24 new subscribers who joined us between Issue 3 and now. Your support means the world to me!
Will you persist, pivot, or concede?
I had lunch with my dear friend Libby earlier this week. Libby has been a friend for many years and she is one of the first people who reached out to me when I launched Monarch Strategies LLC. Over lunch, Libby offered her wise counsel from years of running her own consulting firm. Libby and I share loves of life, Disney, Jesus, and good books. This week’s lunch conversation went to book recommendations and Libby shared two with me: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey and The Myth of the Nice Girl by Fran Hauser and Jodi Lipper. I picked up both immediately because Libby ROCKS at book recommendations.
Today’s title and inspiration come straight out of Chapter 1 of Greenlights. When faced with a challenge in meeting a goal, will you persist, pivot, or concede?
To begin, this assumes you have a goal. For me, goals are hard and fast desires that I view as required. I have loads of dreams but I’ve not yet committed to them. Let’s take a goal of losing weight - a goal I’ve had over and over again in my life. Whether it was 5 pounds or 50 pounds this is regularly on my want to do list. And, far too often I end up conceding rather than persisting or pivoting. (I should add here - and I’ll mention it later - that my goal really is to develop healthy habits to last a lifetime but that’s enormous and so my short term goal is often around weight loss.) Goals stack on top of one another - short term goals help us reach long term goals.
Persisting and pivoting are growth minded skills. Conceding can be as well, but conceding in an atmosphere of growth assumes you concede the original goal wasn’t possible but that you’ll adapt the goal in some way. In my example of losing weight, my current goal is to lose 10 pounds before I head out on an Amtrak train vacation with my dad and sister later this summer. Right now, I’m failing miserably at that goal. That said, I try again every single day. Let’s say, I only lose 8 pounds by that trip? Or I lose 12 pounds but put 3 back on? Perfectionist me would view both of these as failures. But as I try to battle that inner perfectionist, I continually remind myself that what I really need to do is adapt and then persist (or in the words of McConaughey pivot and then persist. Ultimately, my goal is to lose far more than 10 pounds and my life goal is to develop and maintain healthy habits that last a lifetime. So, I may also need to think about reframing this challenge but I think that’s a discussion for a future newsletter essay.
Where do you need to persist, pivot, or concede? What did you concede that really requires you to go back and pivot? It’s okay to go backwards as long as that ultimately takes you forward.
What I published this week
From side hustlers to volunteers — stay organized for tax time
I launched a small business — Monarch Strategies LLC — earlier this year. I have engaged the services of an accountant so when I did my…
iwannabemewhenigrowup.medium.com
How do you find problems?
This week’s blog post at Monarch Strategies is all about how to find problems - and most importantly get clear on them before you head straight to action.
The Marvel Day At Sea Trip Report
Bestie Gayle and I finished our Marvel Day at Sea Cruise trip report. We’ve been publishing it on facebook by day and will wrap that up early this week. If you want to read the entire report (by day or in one looooonnnnnggggg scroll), visit my personal web site.
Tweets from the Notion Block by Block Conference
Notion is a no-code software tool that allows you to create applications that fit your unique needs - whether for personal productivity, knowledge management, organizational operations, and much, much more. Notion held their virtual Block by Block event this week. I had fun tweeting a bit during the sessions. These are a couple of my favorites.
"Notion is a possibility tool, not a productivity tool" - @thenotionbar during Block by Block
https://twitter.com/kicki22/status/1499087383102373893
That second tweet is really important as Notion announced a consultant certification program. I’ve set a goal to become Notion certified by the end of 2022 and am going to write and record about my journey so will be sharing some of that content here.
Join Me on Medium
One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is selling yourself - learning to ask someone to support you in making a living. So, I’m practicing the ask here.
To be a writer you need to write AND share your work. I’ve been writing online for years and I LOVE writing on Medium. Medium is a fantastic destination for writers and readers alike. Whether you just want full access to all of the great content on Medium or you want to write and make a little money when people read your articles on Medium an annual subscription is your key to it all. And, it’s surprisingly affordable for what you get.
I’d be honored if you’d check it out and honored if you’d subscribe through my link. A Medium subscription also makes a great gift for a reader or writer in your life.
I hate asks like this when folks aren’t willing to tell you what’s realistic so here are my details for 2021. I made $14.27 and published 10 articles in 2021. That’s 28% of my membership fee recovered and I only published 10 times. This year, I’m aiming to publish 50 articles and make 100% of my membership fee back. I currently have 134 “followers”, 1 email subscriber, and 0 referrals (you can change that by clicking the link above). I don’t have goals for those areas but I will ask you to follow, subscribe, or join as a referral and I’d love to be on the platform with you.
Diversion
I’ve been giving voice to something I’m calling a dream right now. I’m not willing to commit yet but I’m definitely exploring the possibility. What is it you ask? Taking a long road trip in my SUV - or in Internet terms SUV-RVing.
Imagine it - Kona and I out on the open road enjoying the beautiful United States in all its glory.
You can 100% lose yourself on YouTube watching how people have retrofitted their SUVs and Minivans to be full-time homes. While that is well outside of what I’m interested in, I’ve lost some hours watching these and making a list of what I might need to think about should I decide to turn this dream into a goal.
I live in a Minivan. Tiny Home Camper Tour! Stealth, Off-Grid, Solar, Off-Road, Lifted
What dreams are you currently exploring that you haven’t quite committed to?
In order to unsubscribe, click here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Created with Revue by Twitter.
Kara Monroe, 11640 Winding Wood Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46235