My friend Justin called me a few months ago, frustrated.
He didn’t say exactly what was bothering him. He didn’t need to. I could hear it in the way he was talking — that particular tone ambitious people get when they know they should be further along but can’t figure out why they’re not.
He kept circling around the same idea without landing on it. Something about feeling stuck. Something about working hard but not seeing it translate. Something about watching other people move while he stayed in the same place.
I let him go for a while. Then I asked him a weird question.
“Pull up your calendar. What does the last month actually look like?”
He was quiet for a second. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Everything, as it turns out.
Because most of us have two versions of our life: the version we talk about and the version we schedule.
The version we talk about is usually pretty inspiring. It’s full of goals, plans, ambitions, things we’re building, things we’re learning, things we care …
