the Weekly Framework: how to identify and solve challenges in advance

hello, friends 💖 I hope each of you is holding up as well as you can in this abhorrent timeline. If you’ve found it hard to focus on work or if you’ve felt guilty about pursuing your dreams while the world falls apart around you, please know that you’re not alone. But the moment when everything feels the darkest is exactly when the world needs your light.

As you lift your voice in protest, remember that singing is resistance. Joy is resistance. And as the fine people of Minnesota are showing us every day, taking care of our neighbors is just the right thing to do.

It feels awkward to transition from this moment to a “normal” newsletter theme, but 🤷 here we go.

When I sat down to write about being consistent, I quickly realized that the topic felt oddly familiar. That’s because it was only three months ago that I wrote a newsletter on, and I quote, “why ‘being consistent’ is a terrible goal.” 🤦

Clearly I’d forgotten my own advice by the end of 2025, when I set a goal to meditate for at least 10 minutes every day in January. I don’t think I believed I would actually do it; I have an abysmal track record with goals like this. Usually within a couple days I’ve forgotten that I even set the goal.

This time, though, I gave myself a runway: I did a soft launch 🤣 of my new habit in the last few days of December. Each of those days, I thought “oh, I need to meditate” and then I paid attention to the objections that came up.

The first day, I fell into a rabbit hole looking for a suitable guided meditation track. I decided to remove that trap by just doing a silent meditation instead. The second day, I realized that the chair I wanted to sit in was covered in the detritus of daily living. I cleared it and draped a blanket over it to remind me that it needed to stay clear. (I also didn’t actually worry about “being consistent.” I just took each day as it came.)

By the time it was actually time to start my meditation practice, I knew exactly when and where and how I would be meditating. The ramp-up period gave me time to identify and solve the challenges that otherwise would have gotten in my way.

That’s what we’re looking at with this week’s questions:

• Reflecting on last week: Hey, you made it here, friend. And the goal last week was to embrace imperfection, so nobody cares if you did anything “perfectly.” 💖 Looking back, are there any mistakes you want to learn from? If so, try to take the lesson from those experiences and then forgive yourself for being human, okay?

• Preparing for this week: What do you have coming up this week? Is your to-do list reasonable in light of whatever is already on your calendar? Are you also allowing yourself time to eat and sleep and all those other pesky requirements of daily living? If something’s gotta go, try to figure that out now so you’re not setting yourself up to fail.

• Identifying and solving external or logistical challenges: Pick one or two difficult tasks or events coming up this week and imagine that you’re about to actually do that task or head out the door to that event. What obstacles might get in your way or throw you off course? Maybe you’ve never been to that venue and you don’t know where to park or which bus to take. Take a moment now to answer those questions so they don’t trip you up (or make you late).

• Identifying and addressing internal objections: After you’ve worked out a few external challenges, check in with yourself to see if there’s anything else that’s likely to get in your way. This is where—if you’re like me—you might bump into deeper objections. What resistance comes up for you, and what can you do about it? For example, I’ve started telling a friend when I’m planning to go to the gym so she can (gently) ask me about it later, and that little nudge of accountability has been a huge help in actually getting out the door. (Reply to this email if you want me to send you a nudge about something!)

• Taking care of yourself: Please check in with your neighbors this week, especially in the areas (like Richmond) that have been hit hard by winter storms. Does anyone need help digging their car out or clearing their walkway? If you don’t know your neighbors, now is the moment to start fixing that!

Looking for another way to help? I came across a wonderful suggestion earlier this week (credit to Suzanne White of Instagram’s themomchats): see if your local community college has an emergency fund you can contribute to. These funds help students pay their rent and cover unexpected expenses so they can stay in school and keep working toward a better future. How amazing is that?

Be as kind as you can out there, friends 💖 

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