The Moon

You are reacting to a story about what your manager thinks. You have not checked it. The story is doing all the work.

What do you actually know about the situation, and what have you filled in?

Ask the direct question today. One sentence, to the person involved.

The dread about money is bigger than the number. You have not looked at the number recently, which is how the dread stays big.

What is the actual figure, and when did you last check it?

Look at the real number today. Write it next to the one you were imagining.

You are reading their silence as a verdict. It is a silence. Everything else is yours.

What have you decided they think, without them saying it?

Ask them one plain question today instead of interpreting.

You are deciding against a worst case you have not tested. Fear fills the blanks with the most vivid option, not the most likely.

What is the realistic bad outcome here, not the cinematic one?

Write the realistic version down today and decide against that instead.

Not every thought you have at 2 a.m. is a fact. Some are just tired.

Which fear from last night would you not take seriously at noon?

Verify one assumption today with real information, not more thinking.

You are imagining the audience's reaction so precisely that you have stopped making the thing. The reaction does not exist yet.

Whose imagined response are you writing for?

Make the next piece for one real person you can name, and show it to them.