Kick Monday’s Ass: when the plan blows up (August 16, 2021)

It’s time to kick Monday’s ass…

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

Seems like such a “duh” thing to say, but I never thought about it much until I had to get good at logistics and planning a household move every 5-6 weeks. Now that I’ve been on the road for awhile, I’ve run into three major planning snags:

1. Nashville – I didn’t double-check my dates and wound up having to move out on a Thursday (normally I travel on weekends so it doesn’t disrupt my weekday work schedule too much).

   It was stressful, but in the end I took a couple extra days off, made it to Asheville early, and spend the weekend hanging at a virtual event with friends.The early departure from Nashville wound up being a good thing too – the east coast panic buying/gas shortage really got crazy that weekend, when I ordinarily would have been traveling.

2. Atlanta > Charleston > Savannah – I had to be out of my Atlanta place on a Saturday but couldn’t check into my next place in Savannah until Monday (long story).

So in my infinite wisdom, Stella and I swung up to Charleston for a whirlwind 2-day trip before settling into Savannah (where we currently are). Suffice it to say, I managed to see a few hours’ worth of Charleston, but mostly it was two moves in a week, which was exhausting.

That brings us to snag #3 – my dad’s getting married.

He casually informed my sister and I via text that he and his girlfriend are making it official. It’s going down in San Antonio (the opposite direction from where I’m traveling next, which is Florida) on Sept. 18.

Cue minor freakout. ‘Cause if it was just me, this would be simple. Put car in storage. Fly to San Antonio and back, pick up stuff.

With Stella everything becomes about 10 times harder. I don’t want to board her with strangers, but I don’t particularly fancy driving all the way to Texas and back with her highness screeching her displeasure the whole time. Nor do I like the idea of packing her into an airplane. Even if I save days of travel time by flying us both there, what do I do with my car, which has everything I own in the back?

Solution: continue freaking out. Focus on other things for awhile. Take a walk. Take a nap. Keep up faith that an answer will appear. (That sounds linear and logical, but it was more like a weird pendulum-spiral swinging between calm and anxious.)

I was just about to beg off attending the wedding when a thought popped in my head: I am planning on Florida after Savannah. I have a friend in Orlando who once offered to put me and Stella up.

Geez, if her offer is still good, maybe I could crash with her a few days, leave the cat and the car in her care while I fly to Texas, then return and hang out a bit before I head to Ft. Lauderdale.

I called her to propose my idea. She and her family graciously accepted. And now I get to do it all – continue my travels to Florida, leave Stella with people I trust, see my dad get married, and get in some quality hang time with my friend and her family before I move on.

TL;DR: my two takeaways (and maybe they’ll help you out, too):

1) the plan can and will change. Better to roll with it than fight it.

2) there are people all around you willing to help. All you have to do is ask.

Kick Monday’s Ass: You Can’t Stall Your Way to Success

 

Speaking of freaking out and over-planning… I made this one in Nashville and it really fits today’s theme.

Are you an overplanner? I sure am. You can count on me to bring approximately 100 pounds of luggage for a long weekend, just because I like to have options and WHAT IF THERE’S A FREAK HAIL STORM OF COURSE I NEED A HELMET. Also 10 pairs of shoes.

I digress… point being it’s easy to get stuck in creating the master plan (then the backup plan, and the backup backup plan, and the backup to the backup backup plan…). After all, that deep thinking and advance prep feels like you’re accomplishing something, even when you’re really not.

So if I’m describing you (and no shade – I’m totally talking to myself here too), here’s how to get a plan to “good enough” so you can get going.

Badass of the Week

Shoutout to EG Orren, who shared this story with me. Today’s badass is Kelsey Mitchell, who took home a cycling gold medal in the Olympic Games just over a week ago… even though she was not a cyclist before.

To clarify: she was an athlete all her life, and only discovered cycling in 2017 when she was at an athletic event. After catching the eyes of cycling scouts and getting a bike, she eventually decided to give it her all and go for the Olympics.

“I decided to give it one last chance — pursuing the Olympic dream,” the 27-year-old Mitchell said, reflecting on her fateful trip to that Toronto talent-identification camp. “I honestly never even considered cycling before.”

Just goes to show you, there’s always another way to get to your goals. Are you open to it?

(If you know someone who should be featured as my Badass of the Week, leave a comment and tell me!)

New podcast episode!

 

Feeling like a fraud is pretty common for most entrepreneurs. Take that imposter syndrome and multiply it by cultural expectations in a post-communist country and you get a taste of my guest, Csaba Borzasi’s experience. How did Csaba break through generational AND personal self-limiting beliefs to become a successful freelancer? Listen to this episode to find out!

Can’t-Miss Moments From This Episode:

Put away the hair grease. You don’t have to be a used car salesman to make money. You just gotta do this (this tactic takes all the sleaze out of sales).

When stress manifests in uncomfortable ways: the extreme bodily revolt Csaba and I both experienced while “on the job” that ultimately led to our escape from corporate cubes.

Are nightmare clients ever worth the money? Csaba shares his thought on the real cost of $h*tty clients (spoiler alert: AVOID these clients, no matter how “new” you are)

How much do you really need to know to be considered an “expert”?

How to say “I don’t know” to a client in a way that shows you’re a knowledgeable, trustworthy badass (and why you don’t need to know all there is to know to start helping people today)

You don’t want to miss this one. Click here to listen (and subscribe) now!

On Repeat This Week…

 

Last week I was feeling feisty. This week is nostalgic – this one came up in my 90s playlist over the weekend as I was driving around Savannah. You’ll have to pardon the video quality – I usually try to find performance videos or official music videos.

Someone who thinks similarly to me dubbed the studio version over a live performance and it doesn’t QUITE sync up. But the energy is high and I dig it. So today I bring you Under Pressure by Boyz II Men.

_______________

So I got a chance to talk to her to see just where we stand
If she felt the same about me, could I be her only man?
I tried to let it out, we could have some fun
But before I got an answer she said she had to run, it’s got me

Under pressure (and you know what I’m sayin’)
And the feelin’ is killin’ me
Under pressure
I don’t wanna be alone, oh no