Pivot With Purpose · Career Strategy · Macro Clarity · Myrtus
CAREER SIGNAL · Q4 STOCKTAKE
THIS WEEK IN THE SWEET SPOT
Progress Is Easier to See in Reverse.
Last week, I wrote about using the final months of the year to learn something new. Not because you need another credential but to inspire and create good habits that will set you up for the new year. October doesn’t mean you should turn the rest of the year into one giant productivity sprint. I just want to reemphasize that curiosity compounds.
This week is a continuation of that thought and before you know it, hard things compound too. The problem is that while you are doing them, they often don't feel like progress. It is like a marathon, eventually you realize you are halfway there, but each step feels so miniscule. The other point to make here is enjoy the journey! The start may feel slow, repetitive, sometimes frustrating and very often, unfinished. Then one day you look backward and realize something has changed, it just clicks. You can do something that used to intimidate you. Feels amazing right! Think about it his way: the thing you struggled to understand six months ago now feels familiar or the project that once seemed enormous is mostly behind you or the change did not happen all at once and it happened because you kept going.
THIS WEEK'S COMPASS
Before you accelerate into the final months of the year, slow down long enough to notice what is already compounding.
There is still time to move something meaningful forward before December 31.
SECTION 01
Hard Things Compound Quietly
We tend to imagine progress as a breakthrough, but it can be really small. Learning ten new words in a field where everyone else seems to speak the language fluently. Trying something and discovering you aren't very good at it yet and then trying again. There is rarely a dramatic moment when you suddenly become capable.
Capability accumulates, one ordinary decision stacked on another, then another and eventually, something that was difficult becomes something you know how to do.
Progress is easier to see in reverse.
Think back to January:
· What do you understand now that you didn't understand then?
· What feels easier?
· What have you stopped being afraid of?
· What have you learned to navigate?
· What did you finish?
· What did you survive?
· What did you finally begin?
You may be further along than it feels.
SECTION 02
The Signal From Sturnella
Capital Comes Before Capacity
There were two announcements from the Office of Strategic Capital this week that caught my attention.
OSC announced a $1.5 billion conditional loan commitment to Wolfspeed, a U.S. manufacturer of silicon carbide and gallium nitride technologies used across defense, power electronics, radar, drones and critical infrastructure.
A day later, OSC announced a $150 million conditional loan commitment to PsiQuantum to support advanced manufacturing and prototyping for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Very different technologies but the same underlying idea. The money is committed before the capability exists at scale. There are still steps between announcement and outcome: due diligence, financing, equipment, people, manufacturing, testing, execution but the press release happens first. The hard work comes afterward and eventually, if everything works, the capacity appears.
Careers work like that too.
Sometimes you have already made the investment, asked the question but you are still waiting for the visible return. That doesn't necessarily mean the investment isn't working. You may simply be somewhere in the middle of:
decision → effort → repetition → capability → opportunity
The middle is not particularly glamorous but it is still part of the process.
SIGNAL 01 · THE PHYSICAL WORLD MOVES SLOWLY
This may feel like this section is on repeat but it is worth reiterating because we always want events to move faster than they happen - factories take time, mines take time, power plants take time, supply chains take time and people do too. The announcement and the outcome rarely happen in the same quarter.
SIGNAL 02 · CAPITAL DOES NOT REMOVE EXECUTION
Funding can create opportunity, but it cannot manufacture the outcome by itself. Someone still has to build the thing. The same is true personally. A certification course does not create expertise you still need real world application. A business idea does not create a business, but the workday in and day out does. A plan does not create momentum but you need to start somewhere, remember - execution still matters.
SIGNAL 03 · SMALL ACTIONS BECOME INFRASTRUCTURE
One hour of studying does not feel important. Neither does one useful conversation but repeat them for six months and suddenly you have built something. You have to create the luck or the opportunity and increasing the: knowledge, your network, developing a body of work, confidence, reputation and options. That is personal infrastructure.
SIGNAL 04 · SOMETIMES THE RIGHT MOVE IS TO SLOW DOWN
The world is moving quickly. Think about your last trip to the pump, and how fast oil has moved this year, same with gold, critical-mineral policy are changing, new technologies appear and capital moves into one industry and out of another. It can create the feeling that you need to react to everything but you don't. Find your niche and sometimes the better decision is to stop long enough to ask:
· What actually changed?
· What is noise?
· What keeps repeating?
· And what deserves my attention next?
SECTION 03
The 1-Pomodoro Q4 Stocktake
Set a timer for 25 minutes. Get a notebook. This is not another planning exercise designed to give you seventeen new goals You are going to do the opposite. Divide the page into three columns:
KEEP · FINISH · PARK
1 · KEEP
What is already working?
What have you done consistently this year that is beginning to compound?
Maybe it is: reading, writing, exercise, learning, networking, saving, building your business, studying for something or showing up differently at work. Do not immediately ask how to improve it. First notice that you are doing it.
2 · FINISH
What deserves to be completed before December 31? Not started. Finished.
Is there one lingering administrative task that has been taking up mental space for six month. Pick something where completion would feel meaningful.
3 · PARK
This might be the most useful column. What can wait until 2027?
What are you carrying because you once decided you should do it? Parking something is not quitting forever. It is deciding that not everything needs to happen at the same time.
4 · CHOOSE THREE
Now ask: If I could move only three things forward before December 31, what would they be?
Three. Not ten. Three and that is more than enough, if that is the right three!
5 · DEFINE "DONE"
This is where vague goals become useful. Don't write: Learn finance. Write:
Read one introductory accounting book and learn to read an income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow statement.
Don't write: Improve cybersecurity skills.
Write: Complete one introductory module and attend one professional event before December 31. Make the finish line visible.
SECTION 04
AI That Helps
Use AI as your Q4 auditor, not as a machine for creating more goals. Start by giving it what is already on your plate.
AI PROMPT
“I currently have these projects, commitments and goals underway: [list]. Sort them into three categories: Keep, Finish Before December 31, and Park Until 2027. Do not create any new goals.”
Then ask:
AI PROMPT
“Which three items would create the greatest benefit if I made meaningful progress on them before December 31? Explain why.”
Then:
AI PROMPT
“For each of those three items, define the smallest realistic version of ‘done’ that I could complete before year-end.”
And finally, the one we probably don't ask often enough:
AI PROMPT
“Based on everything above, what should I deliberately not work on for the rest of this year?”
Read the answer. You don't have to agree with it but notice which suggestion immediately makes you feel relieved. That may be useful information.
SECTION 05
Recharge
🌿 THE DARE: LEAVE SOME EMPTY SPACE
Last week I suggested moving your body somewhere new.
This week, I want you to do less. Give yourself one hour without input.
Yes, that means, no podcast, audiobook or scrolling and it is a lot harder than you think.
Don’t try to optimize the hour. Stare out the window if that's what sounds good.
We consume an extraordinary amount of information. Sometimes the brain doesn't need another idea. It needs enough quiet to sort through the ones already there.
Notice what comes up when nothing else is competing for your attention.
You may already know what needs to happen next.
YOUR PRACTICE
One Small Assignment
01 · Look backward before looking forward.
What changed since January?
02 · Notice what is already compounding.
Knowledge. Skills. Relationships. Confidence. Work.
03 · Make your Keep / Finish / Park list.
04 · Choose three things for the remainder of the year.
05 · Define what "done" means.
06 · Finish more than you start.
07 · Leave some empty space.
You still have time. Not enough time to become a completely different person before December 31 but you don't need to. You have plenty of time to finish something meaningful. Keep doing the hard thing. Let it compound and every once in a while, look backward. You may be surprised by how far you've already moved.
Progress is easier to see in reverse.
🌿 THE SWEET SPOT
Read the signal · Find your position · Move with purpose
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Career insights for people who want to pivot with purpose.
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