Five of Cups

You keep going over what went wrong at work. Replaying it feels like learning. At this point it is mourning with a spreadsheet.

What lesson have you already extracted from this that you keep re-extracting?

Write the lesson in one line today, then do the next piece of work.

You lost money, or missed money, and you cannot stop looking at that. What remains is still there. You are not looking at it.

What do you still have that the loss has made invisible?

List what is still standing today, then make one move with it.

You are focused on what they did, or what you did, and the focus has become the relationship. The story of the wound is louder than the two of you.

What is still good here that you have stopped mentioning because it would complicate the grievance?

Name one thing that is still good, to them, today.

You are deciding from the last thing that went wrong. Last time is information. It is not a forecast.

What would you choose if the last failure had not happened?

Make that choice this week, and treat the last failure as data, not a warning.

You are grieving something, and the grief is fair. It has also become somewhere to live.

What have you not done in months because you are still going over what went wrong?

Do one of those things today, without deciding you are over it first.

The piece that failed is still on the desk. You have been looking at it instead of making the next one.

What is the next thing you would make if the last one had simply worked?

Start it today. Leave the failed one where it is.