Reading What’s Ahead

Lessons from the Long Haul

🎶 Baby, if you’ve ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me… 🎶

Through the bathroom door I could hear the upbeat, twangy opening of WKRP in Cincinnati kick off another rerun. Stepping out of a cold shower was the only time my skin wasn't sticky with Oklahoma summer heat. I liked to hold onto that feeling as long as I could, even if it meant I was late joining my grandparents for the last ritual of their evening.

Before bed, my grandparents always turned to the Weather Channel. In tornado country, the forecast mattered. It was how we knew whether we'd sleep through the night or get shaken awake to run for a neighbor's cellar.

My sister and I shared the only spare bed, walls lined floor to ceiling with paperbacks stacked two deep. No air conditioning, so we cracked the windows and hoped for a breeze as we lay under a thin sheet. Days belonged to the cicadas, a steady buzzing drone. Nights belonged to the crickets, a chorus we weren't used to, two kids from Alaska where things are much quieter.

Whichever chorus was running, it was the baseline, familiar enough to fade into the background. So when it suddenly went silent, all at once, along with a shift in the wind and a strange easing in the heat, it was impossible to miss. That stretch of dead quiet was the real signal, the last warning before a storm broke, day or night.

Your work has its own version of that quiet. A season doesn't usually announce itself with a siren. It shows up as a small hush you'd miss if you weren't already listening for it. A few seconds to notice what's changed, before you decide what the next stretch of work is asking of you.

Field-Tested: The Seasonal Pulse Check

A season shift might look like coming back from vacation, moving from internal focus to sharing your work publicly, or leaving a messy first draft phase for the structural revision phase. Whatever the shift, the same few questions help you notice what's changed and make sure your next stretch of work actually matches your priorities. Jot down a quick answer to each question below.

1. Make your best-of list
​What worked well in the season you're leaving? Name one thing worth carrying into the next one.

2. Make your worst-of list
​What distracted you or wore you down? Sort each item into one of two piles: worth the effort to change, or worth removing from your plate entirely.

3. Name what the new season asks of you
​What are you saying yes to now? Are you facing inward or outward? Name one task that only you can do.

Run this at the natural edges of your work: the end of a project, a return from time off, the start of a new quarter. The point isn't just to look back. It's to actually notice the shift before you're already in the middle of it.

Speaking of noticing what a season is asking of you, one of the twenty-four squares on this year's WTL Summer Bingo Card puts it almost exactly that way: "notice what summer is asking you to let go of”.

Signals & Shifts

Amina AlTai’s interview on A Certain Age talks about recognizing your zone of genius, the particular strengths only you bring to your work. Naming that zone is a useful starting point for deciding what belongs in your next season. I also keep returning to her book, The Ambition Trap (Bookshop) for its practical lessons.

Music can tap into memories or motivate action. If you’re curious, WKRP in Cincinnati's main theme song is by Steve Carlisle. For something to carry into the season ahead, The Drain's Climate Playlist (Spotify) offers over 24 hrs tunes ranging from upbeat to melancholy.

Question for reflection: What’s one thing from your best-of list that you’re carrying into this next season, and why does it matter enough to keep? Hit reply and let me know; I’d love to hear what you’re carrying forward.

Take good care of yourself and the work that's yours to do. Both matter more than you know.

Nikoosh

Work That Lasts arrives every other Wednesday. Forward to a colleague who might need these tools, or reply and let me know what's working in your own practice.

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