Okay so yesterday I pulled up that Virgo career horoscope for 2023 everyone keeps mentioning. Honestly? Skeptical. But hey, anything for a little career boost, right? Figured I’d actually try implementing its top 5 tips for professional growth this week. Here’s exactly what I did, step-by-step, mess-ups included.
The Plan & Day One Confusion
Tip #1 was “Organize Your Digital Chaos.” My email? Desktop? Pure horror. Like 1,200 unreads and files named “final_final_FINALv2.” So Monday morning, I grabbed a huge coffee, blocked three hours on my calendar (actually did this part!), and opened my inbox. Big mistake. Felt instantly overwhelmed. Closed it. Decided instead to start small – just my downloads folder. Deleted like 50 old screenshots and random PDFs I never looked at. Small win. Made folders: Work_Urgent, Work_Waiting, Personal_Junk. Took an hour, but hey, it felt okay. Didn’t finish the inbox though, pfft.
The Networking Thing I Dreaded
Tip #2 said “Nurture Existing Connections.” I hate forced networking. Feels fake. So Tuesday, instead of cold-messaging strangers, I scrolled through my LinkedIn contacts. Found Sarah, worked on that project last year, haven’t talked since. Typed out this awkward message: “Hey Sarah! Saw your update about Project X, reminded me of our work last summer. Hope you’re doing well!” Hit send. Felt weird. BUT she replied super nice next morning?! Just sharing a bit. Felt less painful than expected.
Skills & The Snoozefest Course
Tip #3: “Upskill Strategically.” Ugh. Saw “master data visualization” on the list. Found this free online “Intro to Charts” tutorial Wednesday. Played it at 1.5x speed while folding laundry. Learned how to make… one kinda basic chart on a tool I already knew. Felt kinda useless? So I stopped. Later, spotted a big announcement in our industry newsletter (boring read, always ignore it). Saw “Emerging Field Y” mentioned everywhere. THAT seemed smarter. Bookmarked one decent-looking intro article for Sunday coffee time. More strategic, I guess? Half-assed execution.
Stopping the Overwork Spiral
Tip #4 was “Set Boundaries & Recharge.” Classic Virgo struggle, right? We’ll work ourselves dead. So Thursday, when that “quick fix” request popped up at 5:58 PM, I actually paused. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. Felt guilt. But typed: “Will tackle this first thing tomorrow morning when I can give it proper attention!” Sent it. Turned off the laptop screen. Didn’t actually feel refreshed though, just anxious about tomorrow. But hey, technically stopped working? Did scroll mindlessly on my phone for an hour instead of truly recharging. Boundary? Sorta.
The Big Look Forward
Final Tip #5: “Visualize Your Future Path.” Friday morning. Put phone away, real notebook and pen (fancy!). Tried “visualizing.” Hard. My brain kept wandering to weekend plans. Gave up on Zen and just scribbled messy answers: “What actually feels fun lately? That small design task Thursday.” “What drains me? The monthly finance reports for sure.” “Where do I wanna be in 1 year? Definitely not stuck in report hell.” Wrote down one vague goal: “Do more design stuff? Learn enough to maybe shift?” Felt vague, but actually helped clear out the clutter in my head a bit. Went back and ripped out that Finance Report nightmare task – wrote “Discuss with boss??” next to it. Small moment of clarity.
Finished? More Like Started Messily
Did the horoscope magically fix my career? Nope. But forcing myself to actually do these specific actions this week, even sloppily, shook things up. Deleted some files, reached out to one person, shifted my “upskill” idea slightly, stopped working once when I should, and dumped my work-brain fears onto paper. Not perfect, but real. That horoscope was more like a slightly annoying prompt to just take small, actual steps I was avoiding. Worth a shot, even for skeptics like me. Probably gotta revisit that inbox chaos next week though…
