Man, February 2019. I remember that time pretty clearly. It was one of those periods where you just kinda feel… stuck, you know? Like you’re doing the work, putting in the hours, but it felt like pushing a heavy cart uphill with flat tires. Not really going anywhere fast. I’m a Virgo, right? And Virgos, we tend to overthink everything, always chasing perfection, always analyzing. So, when I saw some chatter, maybe an email subject line or a quick blurb somewhere, about “Virgo February 2019 Career Horoscope: Boost Your Success,” it just sorta snagged my attention. Not that I live and die by horoscopes, but sometimes you just need a little nudge, a theme to latch onto.
I distinctly remember feeling like I needed a boost. My main gig at the time, it felt stale. Like a forgotten piece of toast. I was good at it, sure, but the excitement was gone, the challenge dried up. I was just going through the motions. And that really bugs me, as a Virgo. I thrive on problem-solving, on making things better. So this “boost your success” idea, it wasn’t about getting rich quick, it was about getting my spark back, feeling like I was actually progressing.
What I Actually Did: Kicking Myself into Gear
So, I started with the most basic stuff. You know how it is. First, I just cleaned house. My actual desk, my digital desktop, my email inbox – all of it. A Virgo thing, I guess. I archived old projects, trashed irrelevant files, unsubscribed from a million useless newsletters. It wasn’t about finding a new opportunity yet; it was about clearing the mental clutter. That felt pretty good, actually, like dusting off a forgotten corner of your brain.
Then I sat down and just listed things out. Not fancy goal-setting, just a raw, messy bullet journal entry. What was annoying me? What was I good at that I wasn’t using? What did I wish I was doing? It got pretty whiny at first, I won’t lie. A lot of “I hate this” and “wish I had that.” But then I forced myself to flip it. For every “I hate this,” I wrote “I want X instead.” For every “wish I had,” I wrote “how can I get a tiny piece of X?”
- Reconnecting: I dug out an old contact list. People I’d worked with years ago, some mentors, even just old college buddies. I wasn’t asking for jobs. I just fired off a bunch of “Hey, how’s it going?” emails, maybe a quick “Hope you’re doing well, thought of you the other day.” Most didn’t reply, which was fine. A few did, and just those casual chats, catching up, hearing what they were up to, it really opened my head up.
- Learning Something Small: I picked a tiny skill I’d always dabbled with but never properly learned. For me, it was really diving into advanced Excel functions. I know, super glamorous, right? But it was something practical for my job, and I spent an hour or two every evening for a couple weeks just watching free tutorials. It wasn’t life-changing, but it made me feel like I was improving, like I was sharpening a rusty tool.
- Observing the Landscape: I started just looking around more. Not aggressively job-hunting, but more like, “What are people actually doing out there?” I spent some time just browsing LinkedIn, reading random industry blogs, checking out what kind of talks folks were giving at virtual meetups. Just absorbing. I wasn’t looking for a magic bullet, just clues, patterns.
One weird thing I did was I started documenting everything a bit better at my current job. Not because I was trying to impress anyone, but because my Virgo brain just needed order. I started writing down processes, creating little mini-manuals for tasks I did often. It made my day-to-day smoother, and oddly enough, it made me feel more in control, like I was creating something solid, even if it was just internal documentation. It wasn’t “boosting success” in the traditional sense, but it boosted my feeling of success and competence.
By the end of February, I hadn’t landed a dream job or gotten a massive raise. Nothing dramatic like that. But what I did get was a renewed sense of purpose. That dull, stuck feeling? It started to lift. The small chats led to a few coffee meetings (virtual, since it was 2019, mind you, so more like phone calls or quick video chats back then). The new Excel skills made me faster and more confident in my reports. And all that quiet observation? It started to give me ideas, little sparks of where I could go, what I could try.
It was never about the horoscope itself, you know? It was about that prompt, that tiny push, to actually do something when I felt stagnant. It reminded me that “boosting success” isn’t always about grand gestures. Sometimes it’s just about a bunch of small, consistent actions, cleaning up your mental space, learning a tiny thing, and just gently nudging yourself in a slightly new direction. It got me moving again, and that, for me, was the real success of February 2019.
