Stacey Abrams’ Framework for Figuring Out What the Hell to Do with Your Life
And the three questions she asks herself
It’s been well documented that the pandemic has warped our sense of time. I, for example, wrote in my previous post that I hadn’t been on a flight since February 2019, when really it was 2020 — an easily fixed, if slightly alarming mistake. But this inability to anchor ourselves in the here and now goes way beyond typos. It’s messing with our sense of self, too. As a former colleague of mine wrote beautifully in her newsletter:
“In the Before Times, life was tied together by a series of events that I’d hop between, always trending gently forward so that I’d grow and change without really noticing. A new friend from a dinner party would spark new ideas. A casual interaction on the subway would remind me how I was perceived by strangers. Showing up at conferences would bolster my professional identity, and pave the way for opportunities that would reinforce it further.
In this moment, all of that is wiped clean, and yet we’re still expected to move along at a rapid clip. But without the traction provided by those outside encounters, how are we supposed to pull ourselves into the future? And, what are the selves that we’re pulling, exactly? I don’t know exactly who I am right now, or what I want or…
