Hi there,

I was thinking about some of the cycles that I see and experience when I work with clients. One of those cycles involves feeling paralyzed.

For the people in their careers, this can feel like helplessness to improve a work situation or that there will never be a job that they'll love. For my clients, it feels like some problem is insurmountable because of its complexity and effort.

Not too long ago I was in a similar situation, but I used a little question to break the cycle. You see, everyone was losing their jobs around me and I was going to do the same if I didn't do something. My peer's positions were eliminated one by one until there were two of us left, and we knew our time was coming.

We talked daily about what the "Narrow path" was. Our narrow path the way we described how we felt as we took actions to fix things. We believed we could fix things, but that the path was both unclear and easy to fall off of.

Our conversation hovered around a simple question, "What small thing could we do that can possibly get us closer?" Sometimes the answer to that question was an email just checking in with someone. Other times it was having lunch with people.

By asking that question we could rapidly list things that even if they felt fruitless would move us along our narrow path. At times it did feel that way, but we kept our spirits up and every day was a challenge of what we could do.

The end of the story is that we both got what we wanted. I launched my business, and he went to a dream job on his terms without getting laid off. That same question has allowed me to publish a booklet, grow my career business, and I'm now working on launching my first class.

Even if the steps along the way seem small and that I could fail at any time, the question, "What could I do that can get me closer," is a cure for feeling like I can't make a difference.

So ask that question for yourself and don't judge the answers. Consider them as opportunities. Let me know what happens for you!

Here's my weekly update for June 25th, 2021...

🗒️ When Performance Matters

When you have a high-stakes project, how do you know people are just talking about software performance vs taking action?

I share a way to use your use-cases to get started setting performance targets early.

Click here to read more

Enjoy,

Ryan Latta