Tag: Tuesday Takeaway

I would recommend Sophia Amoruso’s #Girlboss to anyone — not because it’s a how-to guide for starting your own business, but because it’s a primer in living fearlessly, and that’s a lot harder to come by.

Throughout the book — which is part memoir, part career manifesto, as Amoruso dishes on how she turned an ebay store into a $28 million clothing company — it becomes clear that she treats obstacles as opportunities. “No” isn’t the end; it’s a jumping off point to find a more creative solution, whether that means hiring friends as models and paying them in cheeseburgers, so her clothing stood out from all of the bland shots of dresses on hangers and mannequins, or buying and selling in small batches so she never took on debt, because her credit score was too low for lenders.

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Why is it that Sundays seem so much shorter than every other day of the week? We have just as many hours in the day, yet it seems like by 4 p.m., the day is pretty much over. I used to blame the fact that so many stores closed early, effectively ending the opportunity to run out to the store at 6 instead of 9, but as more big box stores shift to 24-hour schedules, it seems that the fog hasn’t lifted.

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If you’re new at your job and you feel like you’re screwing things up — big time — you’re not alone. Most of us feel that way; that’s why so many people cite some anonymous stat that says it takes three months to adjust to a new gig.

However, your unfamiliar surroundings (and responsibilities) aren’t the only thing to blame. When you step into a new role, your positional power changes too, writes Mindy Hall, PhD, in Leading with Intention. If you’re a creative type who freely throws out all kinds of ideas in meetings, at a mid-level, that may show that you’re an innovator, but at the executive level, tossing out a dozen different ways on a situation can signal to people that you’re indecisive and all over the place. That’s because they’re not looking to you primarily as an ideas-generator anymore; they need direction.

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Even if you love what you’re doing, there will be times when you absolutely hate following that passion. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be monotonous, it’s going to feel utterly unrewarding. And as awful as it is to hear it, that’s something you must keep in mind when you’re starting (or slogging along with) any creative project.

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When writing nugget-sized bits of information, I often start headline-first, especially when writing online: It’s the thesis statement that sets the tone for my whole writeup. This one could easily skew self-help, but today, I’m taking the practical route.

One of the most common problems I’ve heard entrepreneurs talk about is how achingly hard to put a price on what you do. You don’t want to set the prices too high, scaring people away (and thus giving yourself a not-good-enough complex that’s so, so untrue), and you don’t want to skew too low, making people think you’re cheap (and therefore, low-quality).

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As someone who loves creating to-do lists and planning goals, today’s Takeaway Tuesday really hit home. All too often I fall into that trap of, ‘If I do X, Y and Z, then this will happen!” and I’m bummed when things don’t work out according to plan. -Candace

Tuesday Takeaway: Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt

Whether you’re aware of it or not, you probably live by a set of rules. Maybe they’re based on the law, getting along with your friends and family (“On Wednesdays, we wear pink”) or working toward your goals. They’re shortcuts to living more harmoniously; they give us a framework for how we want to live and how we want to be seen by the world. At their most basic level, they simplify decision-making.

So, as stodgy as the word sounds, they’re not exactly a bad thing. Subconsciously, we collect them every day, layering them like bricks as we create a foundation for who we are.

Sometimes, though, you need to take a wrecking ball to them all [cue Miley Cyrus song here]. Here’s where they start to barricade us in:

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