What are you doing this weekend
Step one: Not asking ‘What should I do with my life?’ / Issue 1,103
Oh, hi friends!
Take a long walk.
Go past the point you’ve gone before.
Come back with a story.
“Meanwhile, as I was spending my days and night trying to figure out WHAT THE HELL LIGHTS ME UP!!???, a lot of my friends were already racking up resume points by simply choosing something. They were working fancy office jobs, even getting promoted, while I was furiously journaling about my woes and doodling the outfits I’d wear as a professor.
I was stuck. So I changed the question. I stopped asking “What should I do with my life?” And I started asking: What matters to me right now?”
Really appreciated this thoughtful essay by Mari Andrew.
Another great quote I had to share: “‘How do you format your book?’ is the wrong question. ‘What do I desperately want to tell people?’ is a better one. This is apparently something I need to re-learn all the time.”
Whyyyy is this the absolute truth.
Your Weekend Plans
Wanted to mention if you haven’t already seen The Bear on Hulu, maybe give that a go? To me, it felt like a show about creative process (and grief and collaboration and family and so many other things) but whew, the process and practice. I love an in-depth exploration of a space.
Brian Koppelman interviewed the showrunner Christopher Storer on his A+ podcast The Moment and I really enjoyed their thoughtful conversation, especially the context that Chris didn’t just “come out of nowhere,” and this series is the product of his 20-year career. Mmm long game!
PS — ICYMI, here are my own latest podcast episodes about freelance journalism, doing deep work, TV writing, and editing yourself. More next week and then I’m moving to a three-times-a-week schedule, because there are no rules — and in the words of Mari Andrew, this matters to me right now!
Have a great weekend, my friends.