It was a tough day today.
It’s just the first week since you took a leap of faith and jumped ship from your corporate job to your own independent practice.
However, what you are keeping only to yourself is the struggle you face in getting things done and the constant blame you direct at yourself.
Am I lazier now?
Have I lost my drive?
You haven’t lost it. No, you are still the driven and disciplined individual who won many awards before.
What you are experiencing has happened before in 2004 when David Chang left fine dining to open a tiny noodle bar that everyone expected to fail.
For many years, Chang had lived in the rigid structure of the elite kitchens at Craft, then at Cafe Boulud. Everything was defined; your station, your role, the menu, and exactly how to execute every plate.
Chang, for the first time, discovered that the rigid structure in fine dining was eliminating friction and now, it had vanished. There was no playbook, brigade, or boss to guide him.
However, he figured out several strategies to eliminate this friction and lived through the messy middle. Eventually, his tiny noodle bar became Momofuku.
We have a name for what’s happening to you and what to do about it. It’s not another series on career transitions.
Instead, we inhabit the messy middle transient phase where you are no longer who you were and aren’t who you want to be.
We create an operating system to help you remain sane and functional in this phase so that you can transition to your new identity .
We name six main friction sources that make everything so difficult to get done in this period and hand you the fix beside each.
This way, you will be empowered to live in the messy middle and successfully transition into your new identity.
Today, we share the full workbook so that you can get started practicing immediately.