Quarter Pounder (3.26.25)
You deserve a break today.
Folks, a fourth of the year is gonzo, done.
If the fifty middle years of life are our most productive, a calendar quarter is 0.5% of that span. Here are some thoughts as we barrel towards 1% by July:
1. Shift Happens. I’m always optimistic about work when January swings round. December downtime sprouts ideas and plans; I start to organize myself and my team around them. The challenge is maintaining that enthusiasm as the obstacles roll in. A stakeholder resists your efforts; a review flags your shortcomings; your best intentions are misunderstood. “That” role goes to someone else; compensation fails to motivate; you are asked to move mountains with teaspoons; a valued colleague quits. What now?
2. Testing 1-2-3. If you have school-going children, then (with apologies to T.S. Eliot) April is the cruelest month. As the academic year enters the final stretch, everyone is tired, grumpy and longing for summer. But the horizon holds APs and SATs, standardized tests and finals. For high school seniors, college decisions loom. For recent graduates, it’s a brutal job market. It’s tough to be a student these days. That’s pretty rough on parents too.
3. Life Line. I hope all has been well with your personal life this quarter. But if mine is anything to go by, there are constant ups and downs, and sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Could be job/school struggles, relationship conflict, health/money issues, or life simply doing what life does so excellently, i.e. sucking. Even when it’s going ok for me, not always so for my family. Having people who you love makes you so very vulnerable; whatever happens to them also happens to you.
How to handle Q2?
Anticlimax: I’m not going to offer any advice (and anyway, it’s worth what you paid for this post). But I do have some observations that are hopefully worth a little more.
I spent most of my adult years bouncing between the pinball bumpers of work/personal success, raising kids, and life’s struggles. In moments of vanity, I look at my fancy resume, my precious stuff, and my beloved family, and I foolishly allow myself a fleeting sense of satisfaction. Fleeting in the sense that at the end of the day, I know my resume is only worth what I have done for you lately, all stuff will one day turn to dust, and I cannot truly love or protect my family the way my heart desires. None of it endures.
Let’s not be nihilistic…of course you should wisely take on the challenges of the world. I’ve had some success in that and if you do want my “worthless” advice, just ask and it’s yours. Tackle whatever this world presents as best you can. When 2025 is done, when the fifty productive years are over, may you have many great memories to reflect on, many achievements to be proud of, and many people grateful for your life.
Still, I ask you to consider that you are worth so much more than that, so much more than pleasure, production, and praise.
That is to say, propitiation.
Fancy word. We’ll explore what it means over the coming few weeks.
-J
… but what if we WANT to pay for your advice? (Of course, your price point may beyond my personal threshold ehem) Keep ‘em coming Justin! And yes, I did have to look up that word propitiation and ask AI to put it in a modern sentence. :)