Man, let me tell you about March 2024. It started like a dumpster fire. Absolute, total garbage. I had this one massive contract, the kind that pays the rent for six months, lined up. I’d been chasing it since last fall. Early March, I choked. Went into the big presentation, and I just… overcomplicated everything. Hesitated on the key number. The client walked. Just like that. Done. My whole business plan for the quarter went sideways.
I spent the next three days just staring at the wall, slamming cheap coffee, feeling sorry for myself. Total paralysis. I was making calls, sure, but they were the wrong calls. I was stuck in that spiral of ‘What did I do wrong five years ago to deserve this?’ You know the drill.
It was my sister, the one who buys crystals and talks about “cosmic energy,” who sent me this link. Usually, I hit delete. I mean, come on, astrology? But I was so busted up and desperate for a shift, for anything to break the rut, I clicked it. The title was all about the Virgo monthly outlook and avoiding these five mistakes. I read it, and honestly, my jaw dropped. It wasn’t about the stars; it was a checklist of my own damn habits.
The Shocking Checklist and the Decision to Act
I printed the article. I didn’t care about my sun sign or Mercury retrograde; I cared that someone had apparently logged into my brain and written out my exact recipe for failure. It felt like an indictment. I decided I was going to treat this stupid horoscope like a drill sergeant’s instruction manual. I was going to systematically track and destroy every single one of those five behaviors for the rest of the month.
This was my process, beginning March 8th. I marked it in my calendar: Operation Stop Being an Idiot.
I took the five mistakes and turned them into five action items. No analyzing, no thinking, just action. This is what the list essentially said, and what I literally did.
- Mistake 1: Getting Trapped in Over-Analysis/Indecision. The article warned against ‘paralysis by analysis.’
- Mistake 2: Isolating and Trying to Solve Everything Solo. The horoscope said Virgos withdraw when stressed. Bingo.
- Mistake 3: Ignoring the Gut Feeling for Pure Logic. It called out relying too heavily on spreadsheets when the instinct says otherwise.
- Mistake 4: Dwelling on Past Errors and Self-Criticism. This one hit hard. I was still ripping myself apart over the lost contract.
- Mistake 5: Over-Commitment and Neglecting Basic Needs. The article warned about taking on too much to ‘prove’ worth.
My Practice: I had two projects—a small proposal and a website update—I’d been putting off for weeks because I kept tweaking the design. I gave myself 60 minutes for both. I forced my hand to hit the ‘publish’ button on the site and the ‘send’ button on the proposal, flaws and all. The anxiety was rough, but I got them out. I moved past the fear of being imperfect. I just shipped the damn thing.
My Practice: I picked up the phone. Not to email, not to text, but to call three old colleagues I hadn’t spoken to in over a year. I didn’t call to beg for work; I just called to catch up. I explicitly shared that I was having a rough start to the month. I opened up the conversation. I actually had to mute myself a couple of times because I almost apologized for calling. But I kept talking. The simple act of reaching out broke the isolation spell.
My Practice: I had this tiny side investment I was looking at. The numbers were marginal, terrible, borderline stupid. But a voice in my head kept saying, ‘Just try a small amount.’ I ignored my financial adviser, I ignored the spreadsheet, and I threw in a small, totally irrational sum. It was pure gut. I acted on the feeling, not the fear, and I stopped checking the data every hour.
My Practice: I got out a big pad of paper. I wrote down every single negative thought, every criticism about myself, and every detail of the failed contract. Every time a bad thought popped up, I added it to the page. When the page was full—and it was full—I drove to the nearest industrial shredder (I know, dramatic), and I watched that stupid piece of paper turn into dust. I stopped reliving that damn presentation. I started doing the next thing instead.
My Practice: The minute I finished the first four actions, I shut down my computer at 5 PM. Done. I grabbed a six-pack, a cheap pizza, and I watched terrible movies all night. I didn’t answer a single work-related notification. I actually let myself rest without feeling guilty that the world was collapsing. It was the first time in months I hadn’t felt that twitchy need to check email at 10 PM. I acted selfishly and it somehow worked.
The Aftermath and the Realization
The whole month didn’t turn into some glittering success story right away. It didn’t magically bring the big client back. But here’s the thing: that old colleague I called in step two? The one I just called to chat with? Turns out she’s now heading up a smaller division that needed exactly the kind of work I was good at. We had coffee, and I walked out with a new project that covers that six months’ rent and then some. It wasn’t the stars that did it; it was the forced motion that came from just following a ridiculous checklist.
I stopped thinking and I started doing. That’s the entire record of my March. The only mistake I truly avoided was staying still. I learned that sometimes, you need a crazy, outside excuse—even a horoscope—to stop you from being your own worst enemy. The stars didn’t align; I just stopped locking myself in the closet.
