Welcome to the 118 new members of The Break since last week!
If you like what you’ve been reading follow along on Twitter ( @mngardon ) and Linkedin for more community and conversations about breaking work.
Looking for a great Holiday Gift?
Check out my kids' side hustle, Quotebook . Quotebook is a great gift for a young couple or family with young kids to start building the daily habit of being (and capturing) silliness. The kids and I built Quotebook out of our tradition of capturing all the funny things we say in our family, and reliving them whenever we want to laugh.
Inverting Thankfulness
We are all thankful this time of year - or we try to be.
Have you ever sat down and tried to articulate what you are thankful for.
I’ve started gratitude journals with my kids and we’ve also had a tradition of saying three things we’re thankful for about the day before we go to bed.
It’s funny, they often struggle (and sometimes I do as well) coming up with different things to say.
Why does this happen?
It’s because the amount of things we could truly be thankful for is so limitless we either take them for granted or the options basically flood the inbox of our minds.
To get them unblocked I ask a different question:
“What are you thankful you don’t have?
While this may seem like a harder question, it’s actually effective because it acts as a constraint to narrow our field of vision.
It’s easier to think about negative things in or mind.
This process is called inversion, and I’ll detail it in the newsletter next week.
But for today, as you’re thinking about being Thankful, try giving thanks for the things you don’t have in your life and see what happens.
What I'm NOT thankful for this year.
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful that I don’t have:
a boss
a lot of debt
VC investors
an expensive car
a cubicle
pressure
a lifestyle I can’t keep up with
outside demands on my time
kids with problems
a wife who secretly resents me
parents that aren't around
The list can go on and on, but I’m pretty lucky and I have a lot to be thankful for, especially all the amazing people we’ve added to this community since I started seriously writing!
From my family to yours - I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving Break!
-Mike
See you again next week.
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
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The Break Job Board
I teamed up with Pallet to create a curated job board for our community! These jobs are tech focused, remote first opportunities. I’d love it if you followed. Maybe, just maybe you’ll find your next big opportunity here.
Here are a few featured opportunities:
Squarespace: Senior Data Engineer
TestGorilla: Product Manager
Mindbloom: Product Lead
Hey Jane: Head of Marketing
Geisinger: Compensation Analyst
Also, If you’re looking to support the community and have a job to post, you can do so by clicking the ‘ Post a Job’ button.
What’s happening on the pod?
I was on the Career Warrior Podcast talking about my story of Breaking work. I think this episode is probably the best summary of what I did and how I felt as I took control. Let me know what you think!
Also a big shout out to Chris - he's a great host building a mission-driven organization to help job seekers everywhere.
You made it to the end! Hopefully you learned something about breaking your career today! If so, please share this with someone you care about.