How To Find Your Next Big Thing

Welp! It’s been a little over a month since we last chatted.

To no one’s surprise, my “two week travel break from the newsletter” turned into five.

Alas, here we are!

And on a fresh newsletter platform to boot!!

I had to ditch Substack, and now we’re using a website of my own here at avnewsletter.com

While Substack started as a simple email publisher, it has constantly added more and more features and started feeling like another social media app tbh.

I was okay with their “Notes” function which was pretty much a twitter rip off.

I didn’t really use their “Chat” function which kind of felt like a Discord rip off.

HOWEVER!!

A couple weeks ago…just as I was about to write to you guys again after my break…I saw that Substack announced a new DMs feature!! and that’s where I draw the line.

I mean why are apps always trying to be exactly like all the the other apps I WANT DIFFERENT APPS TO DO DIFFERENT THINGSSSSS uuggghhh🙄🙄🙄

Anyway, rather than having all that weird stuff attached to my newsletter, I went ahead and made it private here.

So from now on, these newsletters will ONLY go out to members who have subscribed to receive it .

There will be previews of each letter on the website, but you can’t read the whole thing unless you’re signed in with your email address.

And of course, you can always read everything in your actual email inbox as soon as it’s delivered each time.

We’re in a secret club now.

Members only.

VIP.

You get it 😎 💅🏽

The Highs And Lows Of Picking Personal Projects

A couple months ago I told you about “3 books for a new identity + quitting things you love”.

It was sort of a victory post about how proud I was to leave competitive gymnastics as soon as it felt right to do so, and not dragging the decision out any longer than necessary in order to uphold some imaginary idea of who I thought I should be.

When emotions are high, it’s hard to remember that our roles in life are completely made up and self-inflicted.

And it’s freeing to break your own little mold sometimes.

On the other hand, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the power of having those constraints to begin with - we need order and structure to keep us from going bonkers with indecision multiple times a day.

So it seems best to have both of these states alternate through life in a regular basis.

In my head, the order and chaos alternate like this:

1. You create an identity that gives you direction and purpose throughout your days and weeks.
2. You constantly observe feedback on a lower level, making tiny tweaks to your path as needed.
3. Then at some point every few months or years, you experience a larger call for a shift. What WAS working simply isn’t working anymore. Something is broken and needs to be addressed.
4. You pause to decide if you need to make some small repairs in your system and carry on, or if you need a full blown overhaul to take on a new identity and direction altogether.
5. The times when an entire life redesign is necessary, you MUST take the time to build it from scratch and allow that new road to begin.
6. And back to #1: You create an identity that gives you direction and purpose throughout your days and weeks.
7. Rinse and repeat as necessary 🚿

And in the months since my breakup with gymnastics, I’ve been getting itchy - somewhere between point #4 and point #5 up there☝️.

I’m fairly certain some bigger changes are on the horizon.