Alright so last Thursday I woke up feeling blah about work. Another quarterly review meeting at the office, just got that “meets expectations” rating again. Felt stuck, y’know? Like running on a treadmill. Scrolled through my phone over coffee, saw Elle Weekly’s Virgo horoscope pop up in my feed. Normally I’d swipe past, but the headline “Collaborate to Elevate” caught my eye. Said something about hidden opportunities in past connections and tidying up loose ends. Figured, why not? Nothing else was working.
Step 1: The Horoscope Prompt
The Elle blurb specifically said:
- “Reach out to a quiet voice in your network. They hold a key.”
- “Organize what’s chaotic; clarity brings promotion energy.”
- “Review unfinished projects before Friday’s moon shift.”
Total horoscope stuff, vague enough to fit anything. But decided to take it literally.
Step 2: Actually Doing The Stuff
First, I looked through my old emails. Remembered Linda from Marketing who emailed me months ago about some cross-department idea for client reports. I’d basically ghosted her ’cause I was swamped. Felt bad. Grabbed my phone, texted her: “Hey Linda, totally dropped the ball on your report idea. Coffee this week?” She replied in like 2 minutes: “YES. TOMORROW?” Easy.
Second, tackled the “organize chaos” bit. My project management folder? A nightmare. Files named “Final_Final_v3_*.” Zero system. Spent Wednesday night just sorting it all:
- Made ONE main folder for Q3 projects.
- Created sub-folders: “Client Docs,” “Research,” “Meeting Notes.”
- Trashed like 30 duplicate files.
Felt boring, but clean.
Third, that “unfinished projects” tip. Remembered this half-baked process doc I started for onboarding new team members last year. Dug it up, dusted it off. Realized it was actually still kinda relevant.
Step 3: The Weirdly Perfect Timing
Had coffee with Linda Thursday. Turns out her report idea involved combining data from my team’s analytics with her marketing stats. Nobody was doing that. We sketched a quick outline right there on a napkin.
Friday morning, guess what? My boss calls this urgent team meeting. Bigwigs upstairs suddenly want “improved cross-departmental initiatives” and a “streamlined onboarding process” ASAP. Literally the stuff I had just spent days messing with! My organized folder made pulling examples stupidly easy, the half-finished process doc became my starting point, and I casually dropped Linda’s report integration idea. Boss’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
What Actually Happened?
Took action based on vague star words. Purely luck? Maybe. But because I did the actual work – reached out, organized stuff, reviewed old junk – I was ready when opportunity knocked. Hard. Result? Boss pulled me aside Monday. Not just praise – actual lead role on the new onboarding project and partnering with Linda. Better than “meets expectations,” finally.
The Takeaway? Don’t care if stars align or my coffee grounds looked like a promotion sign. Putting effort into reconnecting and cleaning up my own mess put me where luck could actually find me. Elle Weekly didn’t write the doc or schedule the meeting. I did the things. But hey, maybe Virgos really thrive on fixing chaos. Point is: take any spark, even a silly horoscope, and do the damn work.
