I just had this conversation yesterday. Someone asked if I would open another location and I said I had tried and it wasn’t the end all be all answer I thought it would be. It was expensive and I didn’t feel I could spread myself out that way. There’s this push to expand because of the reasons you outlined, and I think it’s also intrinsic in capitalism: always pushing for more profits, more money, more access to capital. I’m not good at capitalism and frankly, I hate it, I just try to play the only game we have here. I wish I had had this self-actualization prior to open a second store. Once again you are wise beyond your years Ashley.
I noticed you were missing in December and I thought, good for her!
Welcome back! I definitely did miss you in my inbox but I fully understand the feeling of life just being too full and needing to dial back on some aspects. I hope you had a great month focusing on Grad School stuff!
I think about the notion of "enough" all the time. I see lots of people in my life constantly wanting more. My partner always wants more guitar pedals (how many does one need?), my mom buys new furniture for her home what feels like every couple months, my brother has an unfathomable sneaker wall. With material stuff I especially think about the capitalism and consumerism aspects and how that's terrible for the planet, but I also personally get very overwhelmed if there are too many "things" around me.
The idea of wanting more of that sort of intangible "growth" is something I've been slowly letting go of more and more each year. It especially hit me when there was a possible opportunity for my boss to receive a promotion and me to take her role. I looked at her responsibilities and looked at mine and realized that I really liked doing what I was doing. If growth meant leaving the stuff I was doing behind, then I didn't want that. That was what really pushed me to remove myself from the "climb the corporate ladder" mentality and consider that I could be happier at a "lower" level and making enough money to live decently.
Happy New Year! A great piece today. “What’s enough?” Is something I think about a lot, too. I don’t need much. I just need enough. I realize “enough” is different for each individual but for me it’s not a fat bank account, but a quality of life where I have time to do and explore other things than just work (although I do love my work), and enough to share with others who are in need.
This piece resonates with me deeply and now I’m wondering about growth vs. expansion. Like maybe going deep vs growing taller/bigger? So much juicy to ponder. And you reminded me of a time several years ago when I was speaking with a leadership coach about AI in HR processes and thought to ask something along the lines of “is it always better to be more efficient?”
Coming from a stint supporting Lean culture in a manufacturing organization, this question felt radical and the coach had been operating under the assumption that more efficient is always better of course. Now don’t get me wrong, nothing irks me more than having to do rework- and I often get annoyed at very manual, tedious processes. But I also think it’s increasingly valuable to ask why, and not barrel ahead with growth or expansion *just* for expansion’s sake and to keep the end in mind.
Really love this and agree with you about having intention before just setting the goals we're "supposed to set." I've been adjusting to a full time work schedule (started in May) and am really proud of how things are going there but it means have less time to grow the newsletter. A lot of this resonates.
This is great – refreshing, thoughtful, and so darn relatable. I like this approach and hope to find a little more clarity and spaciousness through asking these kind of questions. Thanks for sharing this, Ashley :) I lol'd at the end when you apologized for ghosting your readers...I love/hate how I always feel like I need to make this big announcement before skipping a week or month or year of content. As IF I am that special and important to all of these people lolol v relatable xo
Hey Ashley, it's great you took time for yourself and your other priorities. When a project is paused, regardless for how long, I believe one is more prone to welcome your awaited return, than complain about your absence. That's at least what I felt when I saw this newsletter in my inbox. I myself took a short break from my podcast and newsletter, so I totally get it: it felt great and now I look forward to starting again! Happy new year!
I just had this conversation yesterday. Someone asked if I would open another location and I said I had tried and it wasn’t the end all be all answer I thought it would be. It was expensive and I didn’t feel I could spread myself out that way. There’s this push to expand because of the reasons you outlined, and I think it’s also intrinsic in capitalism: always pushing for more profits, more money, more access to capital. I’m not good at capitalism and frankly, I hate it, I just try to play the only game we have here. I wish I had had this self-actualization prior to open a second store. Once again you are wise beyond your years Ashley.
I noticed you were missing in December and I thought, good for her!
Welcome back! I definitely did miss you in my inbox but I fully understand the feeling of life just being too full and needing to dial back on some aspects. I hope you had a great month focusing on Grad School stuff!
I think about the notion of "enough" all the time. I see lots of people in my life constantly wanting more. My partner always wants more guitar pedals (how many does one need?), my mom buys new furniture for her home what feels like every couple months, my brother has an unfathomable sneaker wall. With material stuff I especially think about the capitalism and consumerism aspects and how that's terrible for the planet, but I also personally get very overwhelmed if there are too many "things" around me.
The idea of wanting more of that sort of intangible "growth" is something I've been slowly letting go of more and more each year. It especially hit me when there was a possible opportunity for my boss to receive a promotion and me to take her role. I looked at her responsibilities and looked at mine and realized that I really liked doing what I was doing. If growth meant leaving the stuff I was doing behind, then I didn't want that. That was what really pushed me to remove myself from the "climb the corporate ladder" mentality and consider that I could be happier at a "lower" level and making enough money to live decently.
Happy New Year! A great piece today. “What’s enough?” Is something I think about a lot, too. I don’t need much. I just need enough. I realize “enough” is different for each individual but for me it’s not a fat bank account, but a quality of life where I have time to do and explore other things than just work (although I do love my work), and enough to share with others who are in need.
This piece resonates with me deeply and now I’m wondering about growth vs. expansion. Like maybe going deep vs growing taller/bigger? So much juicy to ponder. And you reminded me of a time several years ago when I was speaking with a leadership coach about AI in HR processes and thought to ask something along the lines of “is it always better to be more efficient?”
Coming from a stint supporting Lean culture in a manufacturing organization, this question felt radical and the coach had been operating under the assumption that more efficient is always better of course. Now don’t get me wrong, nothing irks me more than having to do rework- and I often get annoyed at very manual, tedious processes. But I also think it’s increasingly valuable to ask why, and not barrel ahead with growth or expansion *just* for expansion’s sake and to keep the end in mind.
Really love this and agree with you about having intention before just setting the goals we're "supposed to set." I've been adjusting to a full time work schedule (started in May) and am really proud of how things are going there but it means have less time to grow the newsletter. A lot of this resonates.
This is great – refreshing, thoughtful, and so darn relatable. I like this approach and hope to find a little more clarity and spaciousness through asking these kind of questions. Thanks for sharing this, Ashley :) I lol'd at the end when you apologized for ghosting your readers...I love/hate how I always feel like I need to make this big announcement before skipping a week or month or year of content. As IF I am that special and important to all of these people lolol v relatable xo
Hey Ashley, it's great you took time for yourself and your other priorities. When a project is paused, regardless for how long, I believe one is more prone to welcome your awaited return, than complain about your absence. That's at least what I felt when I saw this newsletter in my inbox. I myself took a short break from my podcast and newsletter, so I totally get it: it felt great and now I look forward to starting again! Happy new year!