WorkLife Harmony #12
recalibrate and think again
Welcome to the 12th edition of WorkLife Harmony: a newsletter about easing the tension between work, life, and play.
🛬 Work: Recalibrate & Think Again
I hope you are riding the waves of life with resilience and reflection. Changes in my personal and work life threw me out of worklife harmony these past few months. I lost a loved one and navigated a second layoff at my company. In the midst of this turbulence, I consciously dialed down my writing practice to recalibrate.
Recalibrate – a term that's become my daily mantra, a signal that I need to shift my actions and thoughts. It's about taking a pause, giving myself the space to rethink my approach to work and life and ask, "What do I want to do differently right now?"
In the process, I hit pause on writing WorkLife Harmony. I fell into the trap of thinking everything needed to be balanced — and never messy or inconsistent— before I could share my thoughts. The fear of being seen as incompetent kept me from putting my ideas out there. Sound familiar? If so, here's a thought for both of us: Why are we so hard on ourselves?
So, here's my "do differently" moment—I want to be kinder to myself, recognizing that we can hit turbulence anytime. I'm not claiming to be an expert on work-life harmony, but I sure am an advocate. Let's learn and grow together.
In the past few months, I've received invaluable advice from mentors and leaders. In my upcoming WorkLife Harmony editions, I plan to distill their advice on influencing your career and ditching outdated definitions of executive presence. And I won't simply accept advice as is—I'll synthesize it, mold it, and truly make it my own so that it sticks with me.
I also owe my recent breakthroughs to the book Think Again by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist who studies work for a living. I’ll leave you with my favorite catchy coined terms and sticky ideas:
Embrace the joy of being wrong: Cultivate confident humility. Embrace mistakes, for it is in those moments that true growth occurs. We can learn from our errors with grace and humor.
Inverse charisma: Practive the art of persuasive listening by listening more and talking less. “To speak with her was to be seduced by an inverse charisma, a sense of being listened to with such intensity that you had to be to your honest, sharpest, and best self.” Empower others to find their own answers, not just accept yours.
Schedule a life checkup: Just as regular medical checkups are essential for physical well-being, so too are life checkups for ensuring you're on the right path towards personal fulfillment. Don’t just chase happiness in your worklife, instead pursue the work where you can expect to learn and contribute the most.
🧂 Life: Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat
I’ve moved out of the city into a quiet nook of the suburbs, nestled among trees. In my new abode, I’m finally getting back into practicing my cooking by cooking my way through Samin Nosrat's book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. I put my improved salting skills to the test by making a Thai curry chicken coconut soup. Yum!
🎧 Play: Priscilla Soundtrack
My fiancé and I caught Sofia Coppola's newest film, Priscilla. We enjoyed it in a quaint twenty-seater retro theater. Now, listening to the soundtrack has me pondering whether shag carpet and bouffants will make a stylish comeback.
Thank you to my writing group for their support: Tai Whyte
And thank you, dear reader, for reading WorkLife Harmony. Have a meaningful work week ahead!
Hope you're settling back in softly and gently.
So great to see you back. I love the “expert to advocate” shift of context. I’ve been experimenting with the same adjustment. In many cases I feel that walking alongside a friend going in the same direction can be even more helpful than following an expert who seems to be way out in front. Are you still at the previous job or were caught in the lay-off purge?