Man, let me tell you about February 2018. That time was a total headache. I was stuck in this job, grinding away, feeling like I was running on a treadmill that was stuck in reverse. I was ready to walk out, but I couldn’t afford to, you know? Bills gotta get paid.
I was in a real slump, looking for any kind of sign, any sort of hint that things might actually change. I’d never really been one for star signs or all that jazz, but I was desperate. I stumbled upon this article online—the one this whole practice record is about—the Virgo career horoscope for February 2018. I remember laughing at myself for even clicking on it, but I figured, what the heck? Couldn’t hurt.
My Practice Began: Capturing the Predictions
The first step in my ‘practice,’ if you can call it that, was just straight-up documentation. I didn’t trust the internet not to change the article later, so I grabbed a notebook—the cheap spiral-bound one I used for grocery lists—and I started jotting down the key warnings and predictions. I didn’t copy the whole thing, just the stuff that sounded like it mattered to my situation.
The headline points I captured and underlined were a mess of contradictory stuff, which made me cynical right off the bat:
- Warning 1: A major professional partnership or collaboration would hit a wall. Expect friction.
- Prediction 2: Financial growth would be tied to unconventional sources or a completely new skill set acquired rapidly.
- Advice 3: Don’t make any major professional jumps based on emotion between the 5th and the 15th. Wait it out.
- Prediction 4: The second half of the year would require me to completely abandon an old method of operation.
I remember reading the part about “hitting a wall” and immediately thinking of my manager, a guy who had been driving me absolutely crazy for months. I drew a big angry face next to that point in my notebook. I dated the entry February 3rd, 2018. That was the start of the practice: setting the baseline.
The Messy Tracking Period
Honestly, for the next few months, I mostly forgot about the notebook. Life happens. I was busy trying to keep my head above water at work, dealing with that manager. But then, right around late April, things started to go sideways. Fast.
My manager and I had this huge, blowout argument over a client project. It wasn’t just a disagreement; it was the kind of fight where people were yelling and doors were slamming. He ended up going to HR, I went to HR, and by mid-May, the whole “partnership” on that project was officially dead. The client was split between two teams. I pulled out the notebook and looked at Warning 1. It said the partnership would “hit a wall.” Check. That prediction was starting to feel a little too close for comfort.
This whole debacle meant I had to change roles internally. I was basically pushed out of my old team. This was painful, but it forced me to start digging into something new. That something new involved learning this obscure data processing language that none of the core teams used. I spent all of June and July forcing myself to learn it, purely out of necessity, just to keep contributing to the company.
The Unconventional Shift and the Big Realization
The real turning point, the part that made me stop laughing at the silly horoscope, happened in August 2018. After spending months learning that weird language, a former colleague from a totally different company called me. They had a massive, one-off consulting gig that specifically required someone who knew this obscure data processing method.
I jumped on it immediately. I had to start doing the consulting work on evenings and weekends, secretly, while still holding down my main job. That side money, that “unconventional source,” quickly started bringing in more cash than my regular paycheck. It was insane.
I opened that spiral notebook again and looked at Prediction 2: “Financial growth would be tied to unconventional sources or a completely new skill set acquired rapidly.” Both boxes checked. I felt a chill run down my spine, I swear. I realized my career hadn’t taken the path I planned, the safe path, but it had followed the rhythm laid out in that quick write-up months earlier.
The practice wasn’t just about reading the prediction; it was about tracking the involuntary pivots my life forced me to make. The messy breakup with my manager led directly to me needing a new skill, which directly led to the unconventional side gig, which was exactly where the money started flowing.
The final realization, which happened when I finally quit the old job in October 2018 to pursue the consulting full-time, hit hard. I scratched out a verdict in the notebook: Maybe these things aren’t magic, but maybe they tap into some collective psychological energy, or maybe they’re just so vague they always apply. But for me, in 2018, my actions and outcomes mirrored those ridiculous bullet points I had scribbled down in frustration. I had to completely abandon the old method (Prediction 4) of relying on one single, stable paycheck to actually move forward. It was a total, documented, messy win for the stars, or maybe just dumb luck that I decided to write it all down.
