Okay so this whole Virgo career month thing sounded a bit “woo-woo” to me at first, yeah? But August hit hard and I was feeling stuck. Thought, what the hell, might as well try tailoring some of those vague vibes into actual things I could do. No magic, just action.
Step One: Digging Into The Mess
Started right at my desk last Monday morning, drowning in sticky notes and half-finished project files. Realized I couldn’t move forward because I didn’t even know where the hell I was standing. Grabbed a giant pad of paper – old school, I know – and just dumped everything rattling around my brain:
- That promotion packet HR wanted last month (still sitting in drafts)
- The networking event invites piling up in my email (ignored them all)
- The stupid coding error blocking that side project for two weeks
- Feeling guilty for ignoring LinkedIn messages (ugh)
Took like two hours. Felt draining but also kinda… lighter?
Step Two: Picking Two Tiny Battles
Looked at my brain-dump wall. It was chaos. Instead of trying to conquer it all (that never works, learned that the hard way), I circled only two things:
- Fix the damn code block. Just one annoying function. Decided to give it one focused hour after lunch, no distractions. Closed everything else.
- Send ONE LinkedIn reply. Not to all, just picked one message from someone actually interesting who asked a specific question. Wrote a quick, honest response instead of ghosting.
That’s it. Tiny. Doable.
Step Three: Actually Doing The Tiny Things (Shocker)
Lunch ended. Sat down. Timer: 60 minutes. Just me and that code function. No Slack, no email notifications. Just… typed. Hit a wall after 20 minutes, almost went to Twitter. Stopped myself. Looked up one specific reference, tried a different angle. It worked. Weird. Finished with 3 minutes left.
Felt a tiny spark. Opened LinkedIn, found that one message, typed: “Hey, sorry for the delay! About your project, honestly, I struggled with similar integration last year. Try X instead of Y. Might help?” Hit send before I could overthink it. Done.
Step Four: Building a Tiny Bit of Momentum
Next morning, noticed something. Felt slightly less dread about the promotion packet. That tiny win with the code made me think, “Okay, maybe I can tackle this massive document… just a bit.” Didn’t promise “finish it all.” Just opened it. Stared at it. Wrote three bullet points describing my main project impact. Saved it. Closed it. Took 10 minutes. Progress.
Later, saw another email about an industry happy hour next week. Normally I’d delete. But since I’d actually replied to one message? Clicked ‘Interested’ maybe’. Small. Not scary.
Where It Led… and the Messy Reality
By Friday? Didn’t get a promotion. Didn’t fix all my career problems. But:
- The side project is unblocked (still needs work, duh)
- Two people replied back on LinkedIn, one conversation actually feels useful
- Wrote one whole section of that promotion doc (still hate it though)
- Said “maybe” to one event. Might actually go. Maybe.
The biggest thing? That feeling of being paralysed? It’s cracked a bit. Still heavy, still frustrating some days, but moving forward feels less like climbing a smooth wall. It’s more like chipping small handholds. Ugly work. Slow. But it’s my own kind of progress. Didn’t need star charts, just picked two tiny rocks and started chipping. Your rocks might be different. Find ’em. Chip.
