#144 - Prompted

or: get to know yourself (well, your relationship to your job at least) better in 3 minutes or less!

In ways that I could not have predicted, a surprising amount of time at my job is dedicated to writing prompts.

And while I have a literal books-worth of shit to say about how to write a good and useful prompt, I'm gonna take this time to focus on the four prompts that I genuinely believe everyone who is currently working should ask themselves.

1. My relationship to my job is...
2. I'm good at my job because...
3. My job is challenging because... (note: the word "challenging" does not have to mean things you struggle with)
4. In the future I hope to...

Set a timer for one minute each (you can just do a straight four but honestly giving yourself that brief pause between them is a nice way to self-contain each response) and write whatever the fuck you want to!

Some gentle reminders about writing as an adult for yourself (because if you don't do it regularly it can be easy to fall into School Essay Voice or like believe there's a "right" answer and that's simply not true!)

• No ones going to see it (unless you want them to)!
• This isn't for a grade! No judgement zone!!
• If you want to burn the paper you write it on when you're done, omg go for it girlie fire makes fun ritualistic sense!

Personally, I found my answers to be revealing in ways I was not necessarily expecting! I have way more confidence bubbling under the surface than I knew about. Plus it was informative as far as what I hope to get out of my job – a thing I'm really glad to legitimately care about because I dedicate a surprising amount of hours/percentage of my life to it.

So again, going to gently encourage you to pull out a piece of paper (or hey you can even do a word document even though I firmly believe in handwriting>typing when it comes to personal introspection! Whatever works best for you!!!) and take five deep breaths (through your nose!) and write write write for four whole minutes.

[Hold for 5.]

Oh hey you're back! Cool cool. Now presenting: a transcription of my answers!

1. My relationship to my job is...

Good! I love my job and having the docket very clearly laid out has made the parts that felt sticky, smooth. I also have more general knowledge now so I am Better at it and man, growth is so cool.

2. I'm good at my job because...

I can notice patterns of thinking, I'm unafraid to give my boss feedback, and my job doesn't produce anxiety, which means I can settle. I also CARE about the work and we make Real Things that help the world and I think that has kept me able to continue showing up on the says that it feels like the worlds on fire.

3. My job is challenging because...

There are two of us, so if one of us doesn't Do The Thing, the Thing doesn't get done. There's always something new, no two days are the same. We are constantly pushing ourselves and we make BIG strides VERY quickly. Anything we're "not doing" that we want to do is possible and often the only roadblocks are ourselves + time.

4. In the future I hope to...

Change the world. Create spaces of authentic (and therefore messy) dialogue so people can actually HEAR each other and HEAL each other. And I know we can do it.

Did I know I have aspirations that sound somewhat unhinged in grandeur before writing this?

No!

But apparently I do. And that discovery alone was worth the price of admission. My ego might have finally reached its Full [Monstrous] Potential and honestly, for that we are like sooooo grateful.

There's always a bigger fish to fry, but this newsletter is me earnestly offering some self-reflection questions that I think everyone would benefit in some way from asking themselves. Because we haven't brought down capitalism just yet so being honest about our relationship to it feels like an aligning step to take.

And hey, if you do these prompts feel free to let me know! Pass them along! Ask your team do it before their next 1:1 or whatever!

Go forth & write!!!

[Prompts]! It's what's for [newsletter].