#freelance — Public Fediverse posts

Thurs. May 14, 2026: A Balanced Workday

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Day Before Dark Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

You can read the latest on the garden on Gratitude and Growth. I actually have a decent-sized post up this week!

Yesterday morning, I worked my way through the draft of BETTING MAN, adding in the layers and the red herrings I needed in order to move forward. One wouldn’t think that could take all morning, but it did. Those fourteen chapters hold together better than I thought, which is a relief, and now there’s enough foundation to move forward.

The tension builds better now around the attacks that have happened since before the book opens. The first death is at the beginning of Chapter Five – again, farther in than I usually like to put it, but that’s where it needs to be for this book. I’m about to drop another body when I move forward, and then two more in pretty rapid succession after that. There’s enough detail and differentiation in the thoroughbred racing scenes and the polo match scenes to give readers a sense of each without being overly expositional (I hope).

The Nina books are more category length than standard length – usually between 60-70K.

I did the day’s marketing. I wrote the blurb for BETTING MAN and created the page for the book on the Nina Bell website. I haven’t put the cover art up yet. I’ll do that when the edited version of the book goes through production. I did a bit of housework, in case the friend I’m taking to Lenox today comes up to the apartment. It’s not ready for a photo shoot, but I will vacuum and do a little more tidying up this morning, and it will be what it is, in transition between winter and spring.

I did a nice chunk of work on the ghostwriting, although I don’t have a deadline for this assignment yet. I’m waiting on notes from the assignment I turned in Tuesday last week.

It was a solid, balanced workday, which gave me a sense of satisfaction. I got the scripts for Monday night’s session with Athena, and will probably read them over the weekend.

I’m pondering an LOI to a local organization doing a restructuring. I may work on that a bit tomorrow and next week, and then see if it’s worth sending.

I dropped off/picked up books at the library, ran into Big Y for a big batch of cilantro that I need for today’s crockpot meal, and then picked up my CSA box at Savvy Hive. It was raining, so I did all the errands by car instead of on foot. There were too many books to lug around on foot anyway, and I wanted to get those errands out of the way yesterday to free up some time today.

I’m skipping online meditation this morning, because I want to get my errands out of the way and get some work done before my friend and I head down to Lenox for the Clark Art Institute’s event down at Shakespeare & Co.

I hope the rain lets up while we drive there and back. Driving through Pittsfield is always a nightmare because the drivers are so careless. Driving through Pittsfield in bad weather is even worse. But it will work out. If I need to drive like the little old lady from Pasadena, that’s what I will do.

I will miss the library meeting and the library cohort meeting tonight, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I’ve been there quite steadily, so missing a meeting here and there isn’t a tragedy for any of us. I always let them know ahead of time.

I hope you have a lovely Thursday!

Aujourd'hui encore, j'ai pu témoigner de la satisfaction de nouveaux clients dans leur attitude et leur discours, une chose qui n'arrivait que très rarement dans le cadre de la traduction pour des agences.

La gratitude et la reconnaissance seront toujours bien plus motivantes que le « pas de nouvelles, bonne nouvelle, continue comme ça ».

#freelance #conseil

💡 Loving this simple yet effective word counter from FreeDevKit! Perfect for keeping my client comms concise and on-point. Check it out! https://freedevkit.com/tools/word-counter/ #devtools #freelance

Steady Work Rhythm: https://devonellington.wordpress.com/2026/05/13/wed-may-13-2026-steady-work-rhythm/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Freelance #Theatre

Wed. May 13, 2026: Steady Work Rhythm

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

Happy mid-week! I hope yours is going well.

Yesterday, I did some housework/hauled out the garbage, dealt with some admin. My mood improved, mostly because the cats were being hilarious.

I buckled down and worked on the ghostwriting, polishing the 20K assignment and getting it out just before lunch.

After lunch, I did some more admin work, and then went back to BETTING MAN. I did about 1700 words, finishing chapter fourteen and starting chapter fifteen. I then started layering in some insert scenes to an earlier chapter where I had to smooth out a logic loophole and add a red herring that would affect things moving forward.

I prefer to work in full drafts, but my outline for this book wasn’t as tight as it should be, plus I changed direction with one arc that will affect the next several books, so I need to fix things in this draft in order to build on them. There are also things from STAGE FALL, the next book, that I have to seed in here, and I need to look at what I wrote on that (years ago, a lot will be changed) that needs to be seeded.

It’s not a particularly interesting day to read about, but it was a solid workday. Steady, got good work done, not stressful.

There’s some exciting news on the local theatre front. Molly Merrihew, who was the Managing Director of WAM, is now Executive Director of Shakespeare & Co. That’s a great opportunity for her, and they are lucky to have her. I really enjoyed working with her at WAM, and I look forward to staying in touch and cheering her on at Shakespeare & Co. Erin Patrick, who was the General Manager at WAM, moves into the Managing Director position – right before she goes on maternity leave! So that will make for an interesting summer, just as WAM’s season gets under way. But we’ll all pitch in however is needed.

By then, it was time to get ready for yoga. I got changed and walked up to the studio. It was a little cool, but still a lovely walk, with clear blue skies and things in bloom.

Class was terrific. Joey the service dog joined us again, which is always a treat. Walked home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and read in the evening.

Slept reasonably well, although at 2:30, Charlotte decided the only possible place she could perch was on my rib cage. We negotiated, and I managed to get back to sleep until Tessa got me out of bed around 5:30, the usual time.

The morning routine was fine. I figured out the next section of BETTING MAN, that I will work on today, before switching back over to the ghostwriting this afternoon. Also this afternoon, I go down to Savvy Hive to pick up the first CSA box of the season! It’s supposed to rain all day, so I will probably drive, and maybe do some of the errands I would have done tomorrow. Since I’m going to be at the Clark event (at Shakespeare & Co., no less) from mid-afternoon to early evening with a friend tomorrow, I want to take some of tomorrow’s tasks off that plate and put them on today’s plate instead.

Have a great day!

Wed. May 13, 2026: Steady Work Rhythm

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

Happy mid-week! I hope yours is going well.

Yesterday, I did some housework/hauled out the garbage, dealt with some admin. My mood improved, mostly because the cats were being hilarious.

I buckled down and worked on the ghostwriting, polishing the 20K assignment and getting it out just before lunch.

After lunch, I did some more admin work, and then went back to BETTING MAN. I did about 1700 words, finishing chapter fourteen and starting chapter fifteen. I then started layering in some insert scenes to an earlier chapter where I had to smooth out a logic loophole and add a red herring that would affect things moving forward.

I prefer to work in full drafts, but my outline for this book wasn’t as tight as it should be, plus I changed direction with one arc that will affect the next several books, so I need to fix things in this draft in order to build on them. There are also things from STAGE FALL, the next book, that I have to seed in here, and I need to look at what I wrote on that (years ago, a lot will be changed) that needs to be seeded.

It’s not a particularly interesting day to read about, but it was a solid workday. Steady, got good work done, not stressful.

There’s some exciting news on the local theatre front. Molly Merrihew, who was the Managing Director of WAM, is now Executive Director of Shakespeare & Co. That’s a great opportunity for her, and they are lucky to have her. I really enjoyed working with her at WAM, and I look forward to staying in touch and cheering her on at Shakespeare & Co. Erin Patrick, who was the General Manager at WAM, moves into the Managing Director position – right before she goes on maternity leave! So that will make for an interesting summer, just as WAM’s season gets under way. But we’ll all pitch in however is needed.

By then, it was time to get ready for yoga. I got changed and walked up to the studio. It was a little cool, but still a lovely walk, with clear blue skies and things in bloom.

Class was terrific. Joey the service dog joined us again, which is always a treat. Walked home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and read in the evening.

Slept reasonably well, although at 2:30, Charlotte decided the only possible place she could perch was on my rib cage. We negotiated, and I managed to get back to sleep until Tessa got me out of bed around 5:30, the usual time.

The morning routine was fine. I figured out the next section of BETTING MAN, that I will work on today, before switching back over to the ghostwriting this afternoon. Also this afternoon, I go down to Savvy Hive to pick up the first CSA box of the season! It’s supposed to rain all day, so I will probably drive, and maybe do some of the errands I would have done tomorrow. Since I’m going to be at the Clark event (at Shakespeare & Co., no less) from mid-afternoon to early evening with a friend tomorrow, I want to take some of tomorrow’s tasks off that plate and put them on today’s plate instead.

Have a great day!

Wed. May 13, 2026: Steady Work Rhythm

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

Happy mid-week! I hope yours is going well.

Yesterday, I did some housework/hauled out the garbage, dealt with some admin. My mood improved, mostly because the cats were being hilarious.

I buckled down and worked on the ghostwriting, polishing the 20K assignment and getting it out just before lunch.

After lunch, I did some more admin work, and then went back to BETTING MAN. I did about 1700 words, finishing chapter fourteen and starting chapter fifteen. I then started layering in some insert scenes to an earlier chapter where I had to smooth out a logic loophole and add a red herring that would affect things moving forward.

I prefer to work in full drafts, but my outline for this book wasn’t as tight as it should be, plus I changed direction with one arc that will affect the next several books, so I need to fix things in this draft in order to build on them. There are also things from STAGE FALL, the next book, that I have to seed in here, and I need to look at what I wrote on that (years ago, a lot will be changed) that needs to be seeded.

It’s not a particularly interesting day to read about, but it was a solid workday. Steady, got good work done, not stressful.

There’s some exciting news on the local theatre front. Molly Merrihew, who was the Managing Director of WAM, is now Executive Director of Shakespeare & Co. That’s a great opportunity for her, and they are lucky to have her. I really enjoyed working with her at WAM, and I look forward to staying in touch and cheering her on at Shakespeare & Co. Erin Patrick, who was the General Manager at WAM, moves into the Managing Director position – right before she goes on maternity leave! So that will make for an interesting summer, just as WAM’s season gets under way. But we’ll all pitch in however is needed.

By then, it was time to get ready for yoga. I got changed and walked up to the studio. It was a little cool, but still a lovely walk, with clear blue skies and things in bloom.

Class was terrific. Joey the service dog joined us again, which is always a treat. Walked home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and read in the evening.

Slept reasonably well, although at 2:30, Charlotte decided the only possible place she could perch was on my rib cage. We negotiated, and I managed to get back to sleep until Tessa got me out of bed around 5:30, the usual time.

The morning routine was fine. I figured out the next section of BETTING MAN, that I will work on today, before switching back over to the ghostwriting this afternoon. Also this afternoon, I go down to Savvy Hive to pick up the first CSA box of the season! It’s supposed to rain all day, so I will probably drive, and maybe do some of the errands I would have done tomorrow. Since I’m going to be at the Clark event (at Shakespeare & Co., no less) from mid-afternoon to early evening with a friend tomorrow, I want to take some of tomorrow’s tasks off that plate and put them on today’s plate instead.

Have a great day!

Wed. May 13, 2026: Steady Work Rhythm

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

Happy mid-week! I hope yours is going well.

Yesterday, I did some housework/hauled out the garbage, dealt with some admin. My mood improved, mostly because the cats were being hilarious.

I buckled down and worked on the ghostwriting, polishing the 20K assignment and getting it out just before lunch.

After lunch, I did some more admin work, and then went back to BETTING MAN. I did about 1700 words, finishing chapter fourteen and starting chapter fifteen. I then started layering in some insert scenes to an earlier chapter where I had to smooth out a logic loophole and add a red herring that would affect things moving forward.

I prefer to work in full drafts, but my outline for this book wasn’t as tight as it should be, plus I changed direction with one arc that will affect the next several books, so I need to fix things in this draft in order to build on them. There are also things from STAGE FALL, the next book, that I have to seed in here, and I need to look at what I wrote on that (years ago, a lot will be changed) that needs to be seeded.

It’s not a particularly interesting day to read about, but it was a solid workday. Steady, got good work done, not stressful.

There’s some exciting news on the local theatre front. Molly Merrihew, who was the Managing Director of WAM, is now Executive Director of Shakespeare & Co. That’s a great opportunity for her, and they are lucky to have her. I really enjoyed working with her at WAM, and I look forward to staying in touch and cheering her on at Shakespeare & Co. Erin Patrick, who was the General Manager at WAM, moves into the Managing Director position – right before she goes on maternity leave! So that will make for an interesting summer, just as WAM’s season gets under way. But we’ll all pitch in however is needed.

By then, it was time to get ready for yoga. I got changed and walked up to the studio. It was a little cool, but still a lovely walk, with clear blue skies and things in bloom.

Class was terrific. Joey the service dog joined us again, which is always a treat. Walked home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and read in the evening.

Slept reasonably well, although at 2:30, Charlotte decided the only possible place she could perch was on my rib cage. We negotiated, and I managed to get back to sleep until Tessa got me out of bed around 5:30, the usual time.

The morning routine was fine. I figured out the next section of BETTING MAN, that I will work on today, before switching back over to the ghostwriting this afternoon. Also this afternoon, I go down to Savvy Hive to pick up the first CSA box of the season! It’s supposed to rain all day, so I will probably drive, and maybe do some of the errands I would have done tomorrow. Since I’m going to be at the Clark event (at Shakespeare & Co., no less) from mid-afternoon to early evening with a friend tomorrow, I want to take some of tomorrow’s tasks off that plate and put them on today’s plate instead.

Have a great day!

Wed. May 13, 2026: Steady Work Rhythm

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Rainy and cool

Happy mid-week! I hope yours is going well.

Yesterday, I did some housework/hauled out the garbage, dealt with some admin. My mood improved, mostly because the cats were being hilarious.

I buckled down and worked on the ghostwriting, polishing the 20K assignment and getting it out just before lunch.

After lunch, I did some more admin work, and then went back to BETTING MAN. I did about 1700 words, finishing chapter fourteen and starting chapter fifteen. I then started layering in some insert scenes to an earlier chapter where I had to smooth out a logic loophole and add a red herring that would affect things moving forward.

I prefer to work in full drafts, but my outline for this book wasn’t as tight as it should be, plus I changed direction with one arc that will affect the next several books, so I need to fix things in this draft in order to build on them. There are also things from STAGE FALL, the next book, that I have to seed in here, and I need to look at what I wrote on that (years ago, a lot will be changed) that needs to be seeded.

It’s not a particularly interesting day to read about, but it was a solid workday. Steady, got good work done, not stressful.

There’s some exciting news on the local theatre front. Molly Merrihew, who was the Managing Director of WAM, is now Executive Director of Shakespeare & Co. That’s a great opportunity for her, and they are lucky to have her. I really enjoyed working with her at WAM, and I look forward to staying in touch and cheering her on at Shakespeare & Co. Erin Patrick, who was the General Manager at WAM, moves into the Managing Director position – right before she goes on maternity leave! So that will make for an interesting summer, just as WAM’s season gets under way. But we’ll all pitch in however is needed.

By then, it was time to get ready for yoga. I got changed and walked up to the studio. It was a little cool, but still a lovely walk, with clear blue skies and things in bloom.

Class was terrific. Joey the service dog joined us again, which is always a treat. Walked home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and read in the evening.

Slept reasonably well, although at 2:30, Charlotte decided the only possible place she could perch was on my rib cage. We negotiated, and I managed to get back to sleep until Tessa got me out of bed around 5:30, the usual time.

The morning routine was fine. I figured out the next section of BETTING MAN, that I will work on today, before switching back over to the ghostwriting this afternoon. Also this afternoon, I go down to Savvy Hive to pick up the first CSA box of the season! It’s supposed to rain all day, so I will probably drive, and maybe do some of the errands I would have done tomorrow. Since I’m going to be at the Clark event (at Shakespeare & Co., no less) from mid-afternoon to early evening with a friend tomorrow, I want to take some of tomorrow’s tasks off that plate and put them on today’s plate instead.

Have a great day!

RE: https://framapiaf.org/@AstrolabeCAE/116565856405488893

💬 Tu bosse dans le #numérique et pense te lancer en tant qu'indépendant·e #Freelance ?

👉 Viens découvrir l'Entrepreneuriat Coopératif grâce aux #CAE

😁 J'aurais la chance d'animer une nouvelle fois ce 2ème live stream sur #Peertube #Youtube et #Twitch

👇

@LesScopAura @LesScop @LesScopetScicOccitanie

📚 Hi #fediverse
#Hilferuf für einen Kollegen:
Eduardo, Philippinen, macht für uns bei https://galda-verlag.de schon ewig die Druckdaten – von akademisch bis Bildband, auch auf Deutsch.
Er hat seinen Hauptjob verloren, hat mehrere Kinder zu versorgen, wir nicht mehr Aufträge. Seine Preise sind mehr als fair, seine Arbeit professionell.
Wer also günstige Unterstützung sucht: bitte PN, ich mach' gerne den Kontakt.
🔁 #Buchsatz #Typesetting #Verlag #Publishing #Buchgestaltung #Layout #Freelance

📚 Hi #fediverse
#Hilferuf für einen Kollegen:
Eduardo, Philippinen, macht für uns bei https://galda-verlag.de schon ewig die Druckdaten – von akademisch bis Bildband, auch auf Deutsch.
Er hat seinen Hauptjob verloren, hat mehrere Kinder zu versorgen, wir nicht mehr Aufträge. Seine Preise sind mehr als fair, seine Arbeit professionell.
Wer also günstige Unterstützung sucht: bitte PN, ich mach' gerne den Kontakt.
🔁 #Buchsatz #Typesetting #Verlag #Publishing #Buchgestaltung #Layout #Freelance

📚 Hi #fediverse
#Hilferuf für einen Kollegen:
Eduardo, Philippinen, macht für uns bei https://galda-verlag.de schon ewig die Druckdaten – von akademisch bis Bildband, auch auf Deutsch.
Er hat seinen Hauptjob verloren, hat mehrere Kinder zu versorgen, wir nicht mehr Aufträge. Seine Preise sind mehr als fair, seine Arbeit professionell.
Wer also günstige Unterstützung sucht: bitte PN, ich mach' gerne den Kontakt.
🔁 #Buchsatz #Typesetting #Verlag #Publishing #Buchgestaltung #Layout #Freelance

📚 Hi #fediverse
#Hilferuf für einen Kollegen:
Eduardo, Philippinen, macht für uns bei https://galda-verlag.de schon ewig die Druckdaten – von akademisch bis Bildband, auch auf Deutsch.
Er hat seinen Hauptjob verloren, hat mehrere Kinder zu versorgen, wir nicht mehr Aufträge. Seine Preise sind mehr als fair, seine Arbeit professionell.
Wer also günstige Unterstützung sucht: bitte PN, ich mach' gerne den Kontakt.
🔁 #Buchsatz #Typesetting #Verlag #Publishing #Buchgestaltung #Layout #Freelance

📚 Hi #fediverse
#Hilferuf für einen Kollegen:
Eduardo, Philippinen, macht für uns bei https://galda-verlag.de schon ewig die Druckdaten – von akademisch bis Bildband, auch auf Deutsch.
Er hat seinen Hauptjob verloren, hat mehrere Kinder zu versorgen, wir nicht mehr Aufträge. Seine Preise sind mehr als fair, seine Arbeit professionell.
Wer also günstige Unterstützung sucht: bitte PN, ich mach' gerne den Kontakt.
🔁 #Buchsatz #Typesetting #Verlag #Publishing #Buchgestaltung #Layout #Freelance

After 15 years in web hosting — troubleshooting servers, wrangling DNS, and keeping Linux infrastructure running for customers at InMotion Hosting, HostGator, and DreamHost — I'm freelance and available for hire.

🛠️ Expertise: VPS, Linux, web infrastructure, WordPress, email ; if it's broken, I can probably fix it. DMs are open!

✉️ DMs are open!

#fediHire #GetFediHired #Linux #SysAdmin #Freelance

Tues. May 12, 2026: A Pleasant Mother’s Day Weekend

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and cold

I hope you had a terrific weekend.

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here, using The Forager’s Daughter Tarot.

Friday, I tried catching up on email. I checked the spam folder, just in case, and found some material that shouldn’t have been in there. I also found a flurry of emails from someone who thinks I should write books and wants to talk to me about it. Dude, do you not research before sending cold spam emails? I make my living writing. I write books. I write fiction, I write non-fiction, I write plays, I write articles and copy, I’m learning to write poetry, and I put together workbooks on classes I teach. I ghostwrite. I wouldn’t be hiring someone to ghostwrite me WHEN IT’S MY DAMN PROFESSION. The constant emails aren’t “good business” or “following up.” To me, they either indicate use of AI or it’s yet another dude who ignores “no.” Neither of those are options, along with the whole I-write-things-myself thing. Not engaging. Blocking, and may report.

Also, how did this dude get my personal email, which is where these came through? I have very specific business emails through my websites. How’d he get my personal one, when we’ve never met, he’s located in the Midwest, and we weren’t introduced by a mutual contact? It’s creepy. From whom did he buy it?

There are all kinds of AI spam going around trying to part authors from their money pretending to want to host them for a book club or some other faux gig, too. At this point, unless there’s a person-to-person introduction between people who actually know each other, we all have to be extra cautious.

Blech.

Laundry got folded and put away, which took longer than I expected. But then, curtains, sheets, and the like take longer to fold than clothes. Especially when there are cats “helping.”

Got some work done on BETTING MAN, but not as much as I hoped.

Someone else I’ve never heard of (but legitimate), asked if I was free to start on a 6-month assignment that is too far out of my wheelhouse without training to get up to speed. Again, this came through my personal email, not my business one. This person said I was “referred” but didn’t say by whom, which was a bit of a red flag, but digging a bit, it’s the actual person and a legit company. It’s just not what I do.

Saw the news that author Anthony Horowitz uses ChatGPT “for research.” That explains some of what I was trying to deconstruct in some of his recent books that read really weird and flat, and with incorrect details that could have been easily researched. When you read something and think, “where did he come up with that? That’s not correct” and then look it up and you are right, it can’t always be dismissed as “well, he’s writing fiction.”  In addition to that jolt taking one out of the story. As a “creator” he is now dead to me. He won’t care, he has plenty of money without me, and I would rather give my time and attention to people who don’t steal from legitimate working artists. What a way to destroy what he built over the years.

Angry about what’s happening in Virginia. The voters voted for redistricting. Because it would serve Democrats, the Republican State Supreme Court basically threw out that entire election. Only all the red states who are redistricting to slant R are allowed to do so. Absolute corruption on so many levels and no one is doing what needs to be done. What happened in Tennessee is disgusting, too.

And what do Schumer and Jeffries do? A whole lotta nothing. Schumer gets his $$ for Israel as long as he does That Thing’s bidding. He and Jeffries need to be removed NOW. We can’t wait until the midterms.

Worked on the ghostwriting all afternoon, and got as far as I hoped. A little over 7K, not bad for an afternoon’s work.

Cooked dinner, tried to relax a bit in the evening, reading.

Up early on Saturday, a cold, rainy day. At least it wasn’t snow. The morning routine was fine, and I hit Day 260 of the free-write sessions.

I typed up all the notes in the new notebook (a couple weeks’ worth) and then did a little bit of work on BETTING MAN. Not enough, but a little every day adds up, and I let the ball drop too often last week. Now that I’ve changed the originally planned fates of some of the characters, I need to implement it. When I revise, I will need to layer in some other stuff, too.

I did some housework, but we decided not to switch from flannel sheets to cotton sheets when it’s still in the 30’s at night. Flannel sheets for one more week! Fresh ones, but still the warmer ones.

Felt like I needed a mental and physical break, so instead of pushing through housework all day, I did it in stops and starts with research and reading breaks.

I made drunken noodles for dinner. It’s a dish I’ve ordered often, but never made at home. It turned out well, and will go into the go-to pile. It’s extremely easy, provided one has the ingredients for the sauce on hand. Since I am the Queen of Condiments, I usually do.

We don’t have a “regular rotation” of meals. I understand why some people stick to the “have 7 recipes and just have the same thing each day of the week every week” but that does not work for me. Even when I worked ridiculous hours in theatre and film, that didn’t work for me. Sometimes I crave something specific. Sometimes I just want what I want. We have a little over 60 recipes at this point that are go-to recipes that I can make easily and that we enjoy. Since I like trying new recipes, and when I review or judge cookbooks, I need to cook things out of those books, there’s a wide variety of new recipes tried on a regular basis. I mean, some of those I’d never cook again, but at least I tried! The CSA box requires even more variety, because that changes as the season does. Which works better for me.

Cooking is often how I decompress at the end of a long day, especially working remotely. It’s a good transition for me out of the workday into the more relaxed portion of the evening.

Slept reasonably well and up at the normal time on Sunday. There was frost on the cars again when I woke up, but I didn’t have to go anywhere so it didn’t really matter. Morning routine was fine, and the sun came out.

I made omlettes for Mother’s Day breakfast, filled with soft herbed cheese and pea shoots, and they turned out well, although I messed up one of the folds on mine a little. Thank you, Elizabeth David!

We may do “an omlette and a glass of wine” like the title of her book for dinner sometimes this summer, the way we do frittatas. I may get ambitious with fillings!

I did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, using The Forager’s Daughter Tarot, and you can read it here.

I did some work on the swatch book for the upcoming sewing and fiber projects. I should have always kept one (and I’ve kept one properly when I was working on shows during the times it was my job to do so), but I slacked off on one of my own, and am adjusting that moving forward.

It has a photo front and back of the pattern envelope, photo of the garment (or piece), with information on when it was made, where I got the fabric, the kind of fabric, etc. Where appropriate, information on notions such as buttons, zippers, embellishments. And, where I can, a fabric swatch. With all the sewing on the schedule in the next few months, it will be a big help in garment care and tracking what works well and what not so well.

It will also help me in planning projects and coordinating outfits.

I went through some research books, and have a pile to go back to the library later this week. I read for pleasure, a book my friend gave me (I think for my birthday), that has wonderful use of language.

Cooked a nice dinner for my mom, and we enjoyed her cheesecake. So she had a good Mother’s Day. Since she’s 101, every one of them counts.

Up at the usual time on Monday. The morning routine was fine. I played with some ideas in the free-write for the anthology deadline. I’m stumbling because I’m second-guessing what I think they want, instead of just letting the theme inspire me, and there aren’t previous issues to get a sense of it. We’ll see. I played with a couple of things, trying to get more into what I want to do with it, and I’ll see if I can spin them out in a way that works this week.

I rushed to get some repotting done before the 10 AM Feminist Writers Community Meeting. I got a good bit done (you’ll read about it in Thursday’s garden blog), but there was still a lot to do.

And then. . .the meeting didn’t happen. I don’t know if they’re in finals so they’re not having it, or if last week was the last of the season or tech issues or what.

I just did what I planned to do for that writing slot anyway. I decided to turn around the edits for the Monthology anthology story first, so I took care of that. I’m glad it’s moving forward, because it’s one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever written. I’m definitely in two anthologies coming out this year: Monthology and the cat noir one by Thalia Press. I signed the contract for the other anthology that moved publishers, but haven’t heard any timeline yet. I have another flash anthology deadline at the end of the month that I’m struggling with.

I had sad news on several different fronts during the morning, and that made it more difficult to settle in and focus in the afternoon.

But I did, and I got farther than I expected in the ghostwriting. I should be able to do a polish this morning, and get it out the door a few hours earlier than I expected.

Cooked dinner, relaxed in the evening. A frost advisory came through, making me glad I hadn’t put anything out on the back deck yet.

Slept well, got up at the usual time this morning, and got the day going. I’m a little grumpy and disgruntled this morning for no good reason, so I need to get over myself. I’m going to focus on the ghostwriting first today and get that out the door, then switch over to some other writing. I hope to go to yoga tonight. It’s a planting day, so I need to spend at least a little time planting and repotting. And I need to vacuum. With the temperature fluctuations, the cats shed a coat, grow a coat, the temps change, they shed, they grow, and so on. Usually, the shedding is only for a couple of weeks in spring and autumn, but this year, it’s prolonged.

I better get going. I hope you have a good day.

Fri. May 8, 2026: Always More Laundry

Friday, May 8, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Cloudy and hard frost

It’s Friday, yay! So pleased about that.

I was out the door yesterday right after breakfast to the grocery store. Did the big early-in-the-month shop, getting things for the week’s meal plan, replacing staples, and a little shopping for the apocalypse. This weekend, I need to rearrange a couple of shelves in the pantry, and maybe crate a few things to store elsewhere in the house. I tend to keep a well-stocked pantry anyway, and I’m just building us a bit of a buffer. In general, I replace what I use to keep the pantry stocked, and then, here and there, I’ve been tossing in a couple of extra staples.

I got my mother’s favorite cheesecake because it’s Mother’s Day this weekend.

The CSA starts next Wednesday, and will be every other week until the day before I go into the residency in October. Picking up the CSA on Wednesdays means I can meal plan and do the rest of the shopping on Thursdays, except for what I’ll get at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays (and I probably won’t go every Saturday, although I do want to get eggs from my favorite egg vendor as often as possible). That should keep us fresh and balanced throughout the week, with only basics from the actual grocery store most weeks. In general, I’ve found Thursday an easier shopping day for what’s in the store than Fridays around here.

Ran another errand after the grocery, then up to the library, where I dropped off a few books and picked up a big old stack! Hauled everything home, up the stairs, and put it away. Paged through some of the books. I got a bunch of cookbooks, and there are two, in particular, that have a lot of recipes I want to try. I love test driving cookbooks from the library. If I really like a cookbook, I’ll make a few recipes from it and see how they work. If they do and I like more than 10 recipes in a cookbook, I’ll usually hunt down a copy to own.

I realized I dropped the ball on marketing on Wednesday, because I was so deep into the ghostwriting. I did Wednesday and Thursday’s marketing, then joined the Freelance Friends chat, which was fun.

After lunch, I finished the literary committee work and got it back to the committee chair, so she can do what she needs to do for our next meeting. Then, I switched over to the ghostwriting.

The meeting I thought I had yesterday evening was moved to next week, when I have another commitment, so I don’t have to worry about it.

Dinner, read a bit, noodled with some ideas for some things. The table that went splat really did splat – three of the four legs came out of their joints. They fasten with screws, and aren’t twisting back in, so I think I will just position them and then glue them. A task for the weekend. Nothing that was on the table broke, thank goodness.

Up early, got my yoga and morning meditation done before I hauled out two loads of laundry to the car and went to the laundromat. I had to scrape frost of my car. Once again, I hadn’t worn a coat, which was not the smart choice. Oh, well.

I will have an extra load of laundry for the next few weeks, while I catch up on getting the winter furniture covers, the quilts, blankets, etc. washed from the season and put away. Although with another hard frost today, I don’t want to be too hasty on those quilts.

Two loads of laundry through, and I managed to screech around the corner before the construction crew closed off the bottom of our street again. I’m so sick and tired of the lack of communication.

While the laundry was running, I started reading BACK THEN, the joint memoir by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan. When I re-read the book of NY TIMES essays by writers, one of the ones I liked a lot was by Anne Bernays. I then read TROPHY HOUSE, her novel set on Cape Cod, which I enjoyed, and I have PROFESSOR ROMEO in my TBR pile from the library. Not only do I enjoy the writing in this memoir, it contains a lot of details that are useful in the Milly section of my play I WILL BE DIFFERENT. Enjoyment and useful research – gotta love it.

The plan for today is doing my 15-minute free write, working on BETTING MAN, and then the ghostwriting. Somewhere in there, I will fold the laundry and put it away, and empty the big bag of dry cat food into the smaller, more workable jars. Over the weekend, I plan to celebrate my mom, do the weekend housework, some ironing, and maybe some sewing. I will probably do some work on BETTING MAN, too. If I can figure out what I want to do for the extended anthology call, I may do a first draft of that as well.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll catch up next week!

Fri. May 8, 2026: Always More Laundry

Friday, May 8, 2026

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Cloudy and hard frost

It’s Friday, yay! So pleased about that.

I was out the door yesterday right after breakfast to the grocery store. Did the big early-in-the-month shop, getting things for the week’s meal plan, replacing staples, and a little shopping for the apocalypse. This weekend, I need to rearrange a couple of shelves in the pantry, and maybe crate a few things to store elsewhere in the house. I tend to keep a well-stocked pantry anyway, and I’m just building us a bit of a buffer. In general, I replace what I use to keep the pantry stocked, and then, here and there, I’ve been tossing in a couple of extra staples.

I got my mother’s favorite cheesecake because it’s Mother’s Day this weekend.

The CSA starts next Wednesday, and will be every other week until the day before I go into the residency in October. Picking up the CSA on Wednesdays means I can meal plan and do the rest of the shopping on Thursdays, except for what I’ll get at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays (and I probably won’t go every Saturday, although I do want to get eggs from my favorite egg vendor as often as possible). That should keep us fresh and balanced throughout the week, with only basics from the actual grocery store most weeks. In general, I’ve found Thursday an easier shopping day for what’s in the store than Fridays around here.

Ran another errand after the grocery, then up to the library, where I dropped off a few books and picked up a big old stack! Hauled everything home, up the stairs, and put it away. Paged through some of the books. I got a bunch of cookbooks, and there are two, in particular, that have a lot of recipes I want to try. I love test driving cookbooks from the library. If I really like a cookbook, I’ll make a few recipes from it and see how they work. If they do and I like more than 10 recipes in a cookbook, I’ll usually hunt down a copy to own.

I realized I dropped the ball on marketing on Wednesday, because I was so deep into the ghostwriting. I did Wednesday and Thursday’s marketing, then joined the Freelance Friends chat, which was fun.

After lunch, I finished the literary committee work and got it back to the committee chair, so she can do what she needs to do for our next meeting. Then, I switched over to the ghostwriting.

The meeting I thought I had yesterday evening was moved to next week, when I have another commitment, so I don’t have to worry about it.

Dinner, read a bit, noodled with some ideas for some things. The table that went splat really did splat – three of the four legs came out of their joints. They fasten with screws, and aren’t twisting back in, so I think I will just position them and then glue them. A task for the weekend. Nothing that was on the table broke, thank goodness.

Up early, got my yoga and morning meditation done before I hauled out two loads of laundry to the car and went to the laundromat. I had to scrape frost of my car. Once again, I hadn’t worn a coat, which was not the smart choice. Oh, well.

I will have an extra load of laundry for the next few weeks, while I catch up on getting the winter furniture covers, the quilts, blankets, etc. washed from the season and put away. Although with another hard frost today, I don’t want to be too hasty on those quilts.

Two loads of laundry through, and I managed to screech around the corner before the construction crew closed off the bottom of our street again. I’m so sick and tired of the lack of communication.

While the laundry was running, I started reading BACK THEN, the joint memoir by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan. When I re-read the book of NY TIMES essays by writers, one of the ones I liked a lot was by Anne Bernays. I then read TROPHY HOUSE, her novel set on Cape Cod, which I enjoyed, and I have PROFESSOR ROMEO in my TBR pile from the library. Not only do I enjoy the writing in this memoir, it contains a lot of details that are useful in the Milly section of my play I WILL BE DIFFERENT. Enjoyment and useful research – gotta love it.

The plan for today is doing my 15-minute free write, working on BETTING MAN, and then the ghostwriting. Somewhere in there, I will fold the laundry and put it away, and empty the big bag of dry cat food into the smaller, more workable jars. Over the weekend, I plan to celebrate my mom, do the weekend housework, some ironing, and maybe some sewing. I will probably do some work on BETTING MAN, too. If I can figure out what I want to do for the extended anthology call, I may do a first draft of that as well.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll catch up next week!

„Sagen wir mal“, und ich mache eine Pause, weil ich den Moment probiere, so wie man guten Whiskey probiert, und diesen Moment schwenke ich in meinem Mund hin und her, „ich besitze noch ein Fünkchen Selbstrespekt.“

https://finest.day/posts/nichts-fur-ungut

#blogging #writing #writingcommunity #PikaBlog #germanwriters #freelance

Hello, all. I'm available to perform professional writing duties. Skills include: blogging; proofreading; article/tech writing; online content creation; and using WordPress. Available locally (Seattle) or remote.

Portfolio: https://www.diversetechgeek.com/portfolio/

#jobs #HireMe #TechWriter #freelance

"Every 'no' is a vote for a future 'yes.'"- Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

In the global freelance economy, the pressure is relentless: take everything that comes through the door. Chase every lead. Never leave money on the table. Never turn down an opportunity.

Hustle.

I get it.

I've lived that reality since 1990.

Here's the thing - the tone for the hustle is set right out of the gate. When you're in year one of running your own thing, every email feels like the difference between making it or not. You say yes to almost anything because the alternative of an empty calendar is terrifying. I've lived that reality for a long time. My early years on my own were a frantic hustle of saying yes to anything that looked like it might pay the bills.

But here is what I've learned in the 36 years since: the pivots that worked weren't built on the things I said yes to; sometimes, they were built on the things I said no to.

Every no is a vote for a future yes.

From 1998 to 2001, I was doing, perhaps, 80 to 100 events per year. 4 keynotes in 4 days in 4 different cities all across North America. Travel, a full schedule, prep time. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, I was raising a young family with my wife, writing even more books about the Internet, participating in book tours, and so much more. And when the dot.com collapse happened in 2001, I was not quite prepared to reinvent - to pivot - at the speed the future demanded. It wasn't until 2004 that I finished writing my book, What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: How to Save Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation, that I was able to escape the tech lable nd move into the innovation/futurist branding.

I look back sometimes and realize I lost three years that might have made my pivot to a new future easier. I didn't - because I didn't make time for the necessary pivot, because I was too busy saying yes.

I learned a very powerful lesson.

It's hard to think about, but ultimately, saying YES to everything will eventually get in the way of your success. 
Keep reading the full post in the link: there's more on why saying NO is the best way to get to YES more often.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has come to learn that the potential negativity in saying NO is one of the most powerful ways to get to the positivity of saying YES.

**#No** **#Yes** **#Boundaries** **#Focus** **#Protection** **#Hustle** **#Calendar** **#Burnout** **#Discipline** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Reputation** **#Time** **#Guard** **#Intelligence** **#Space** **#Reinvention** **#Future** **#Family** **#Health** **#Ruthless** **#Opportunity** **#Careful** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-29-every-no-is-a-vote-for-a-future-yes/

"Every 'no' is a vote for a future 'yes.'"- Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

In the global freelance economy, the pressure is relentless: take everything that comes through the door. Chase every lead. Never leave money on the table. Never turn down an opportunity.

Hustle.

I get it.

I've lived that reality since 1990.

Here's the thing - the tone for the hustle is set right out of the gate. When you're in year one of running your own thing, every email feels like the difference between making it or not. You say yes to almost anything because the alternative of an empty calendar is terrifying. I've lived that reality for a long time. My early years on my own were a frantic hustle of saying yes to anything that looked like it might pay the bills.

But here is what I've learned in the 36 years since: the pivots that worked weren't built on the things I said yes to; sometimes, they were built on the things I said no to.

Every no is a vote for a future yes.

From 1998 to 2001, I was doing, perhaps, 80 to 100 events per year. 4 keynotes in 4 days in 4 different cities all across North America. Travel, a full schedule, prep time. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, I was raising a young family with my wife, writing even more books about the Internet, participating in book tours, and so much more. And when the dot.com collapse happened in 2001, I was not quite prepared to reinvent - to pivot - at the speed the future demanded. It wasn't until 2004 that I finished writing my book, What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: How to Save Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation, that I was able to escape the tech lable nd move into the innovation/futurist branding.

I look back sometimes and realize I lost three years that might have made my pivot to a new future easier. I didn't - because I didn't make time for the necessary pivot, because I was too busy saying yes.

I learned a very powerful lesson.

It's hard to think about, but ultimately, saying YES to everything will eventually get in the way of your success. 
Keep reading the full post in the link: there's more on why saying NO is the best way to get to YES more often.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has come to learn that the potential negativity in saying NO is one of the most powerful ways to get to the positivity of saying YES.

**#No** **#Yes** **#Boundaries** **#Focus** **#Protection** **#Hustle** **#Calendar** **#Burnout** **#Discipline** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Reputation** **#Time** **#Guard** **#Intelligence** **#Space** **#Reinvention** **#Future** **#Family** **#Health** **#Ruthless** **#Opportunity** **#Careful** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-29-every-no-is-a-vote-for-a-future-yes/

"Every 'no' is a vote for a future 'yes.'"- Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

In the global freelance economy, the pressure is relentless: take everything that comes through the door. Chase every lead. Never leave money on the table. Never turn down an opportunity.

Hustle.

I get it.

I've lived that reality since 1990.

Here's the thing - the tone for the hustle is set right out of the gate. When you're in year one of running your own thing, every email feels like the difference between making it or not. You say yes to almost anything because the alternative of an empty calendar is terrifying. I've lived that reality for a long time. My early years on my own were a frantic hustle of saying yes to anything that looked like it might pay the bills.

But here is what I've learned in the 36 years since: the pivots that worked weren't built on the things I said yes to; sometimes, they were built on the things I said no to.

Every no is a vote for a future yes.

From 1998 to 2001, I was doing, perhaps, 80 to 100 events per year. 4 keynotes in 4 days in 4 different cities all across North America. Travel, a full schedule, prep time. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, I was raising a young family with my wife, writing even more books about the Internet, participating in book tours, and so much more. And when the dot.com collapse happened in 2001, I was not quite prepared to reinvent - to pivot - at the speed the future demanded. It wasn't until 2004 that I finished writing my book, What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: How to Save Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation, that I was able to escape the tech lable nd move into the innovation/futurist branding.

I look back sometimes and realize I lost three years that might have made my pivot to a new future easier. I didn't - because I didn't make time for the necessary pivot, because I was too busy saying yes.

I learned a very powerful lesson.

It's hard to think about, but ultimately, saying YES to everything will eventually get in the way of your success. 
Keep reading the full post in the link: there's more on why saying NO is the best way to get to YES more often.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has come to learn that the potential negativity in saying NO is one of the most powerful ways to get to the positivity of saying YES.

**#No** **#Yes** **#Boundaries** **#Focus** **#Protection** **#Hustle** **#Calendar** **#Burnout** **#Discipline** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Reputation** **#Time** **#Guard** **#Intelligence** **#Space** **#Reinvention** **#Future** **#Family** **#Health** **#Ruthless** **#Opportunity** **#Careful** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-29-every-no-is-a-vote-for-a-future-yes/

"Every 'no' is a vote for a future 'yes.'"- Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

In the global freelance economy, the pressure is relentless: take everything that comes through the door. Chase every lead. Never leave money on the table. Never turn down an opportunity.

Hustle.

I get it.

I've lived that reality since 1990.

Here's the thing - the tone for the hustle is set right out of the gate. When you're in year one of running your own thing, every email feels like the difference between making it or not. You say yes to almost anything because the alternative of an empty calendar is terrifying. I've lived that reality for a long time. My early years on my own were a frantic hustle of saying yes to anything that looked like it might pay the bills.

But here is what I've learned in the 36 years since: the pivots that worked weren't built on the things I said yes to; sometimes, they were built on the things I said no to.

Every no is a vote for a future yes.

From 1998 to 2001, I was doing, perhaps, 80 to 100 events per year. 4 keynotes in 4 days in 4 different cities all across North America. Travel, a full schedule, prep time. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, I was raising a young family with my wife, writing even more books about the Internet, participating in book tours, and so much more. And when the dot.com collapse happened in 2001, I was not quite prepared to reinvent - to pivot - at the speed the future demanded. It wasn't until 2004 that I finished writing my book, What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: How to Save Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation, that I was able to escape the tech lable nd move into the innovation/futurist branding.

I look back sometimes and realize I lost three years that might have made my pivot to a new future easier. I didn't - because I didn't make time for the necessary pivot, because I was too busy saying yes.

I learned a very powerful lesson.

It's hard to think about, but ultimately, saying YES to everything will eventually get in the way of your success. 
Keep reading the full post in the link: there's more on why saying NO is the best way to get to YES more often.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has come to learn that the potential negativity in saying NO is one of the most powerful ways to get to the positivity of saying YES.

**#No** **#Yes** **#Boundaries** **#Focus** **#Protection** **#Hustle** **#Calendar** **#Burnout** **#Discipline** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Reputation** **#Time** **#Guard** **#Intelligence** **#Space** **#Reinvention** **#Future** **#Family** **#Health** **#Ruthless** **#Opportunity** **#Careful** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-29-every-no-is-a-vote-for-a-future-yes/

"Every 'no' is a vote for a future 'yes.'"- Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

In the global freelance economy, the pressure is relentless: take everything that comes through the door. Chase every lead. Never leave money on the table. Never turn down an opportunity.

Hustle.

I get it.

I've lived that reality since 1990.

Here's the thing - the tone for the hustle is set right out of the gate. When you're in year one of running your own thing, every email feels like the difference between making it or not. You say yes to almost anything because the alternative of an empty calendar is terrifying. I've lived that reality for a long time. My early years on my own were a frantic hustle of saying yes to anything that looked like it might pay the bills.

But here is what I've learned in the 36 years since: the pivots that worked weren't built on the things I said yes to; sometimes, they were built on the things I said no to.

Every no is a vote for a future yes.

From 1998 to 2001, I was doing, perhaps, 80 to 100 events per year. 4 keynotes in 4 days in 4 different cities all across North America. Travel, a full schedule, prep time. It was exhilarating, but at the same time, I was raising a young family with my wife, writing even more books about the Internet, participating in book tours, and so much more. And when the dot.com collapse happened in 2001, I was not quite prepared to reinvent - to pivot - at the speed the future demanded. It wasn't until 2004 that I finished writing my book, What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: How to Save Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation, that I was able to escape the tech lable nd move into the innovation/futurist branding.

I look back sometimes and realize I lost three years that might have made my pivot to a new future easier. I didn't - because I didn't make time for the necessary pivot, because I was too busy saying yes.

I learned a very powerful lesson.

It's hard to think about, but ultimately, saying YES to everything will eventually get in the way of your success. 
Keep reading the full post in the link: there's more on why saying NO is the best way to get to YES more often.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has come to learn that the potential negativity in saying NO is one of the most powerful ways to get to the positivity of saying YES.

**#No** **#Yes** **#Boundaries** **#Focus** **#Protection** **#Hustle** **#Calendar** **#Burnout** **#Discipline** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Reputation** **#Time** **#Guard** **#Intelligence** **#Space** **#Reinvention** **#Future** **#Family** **#Health** **#Ruthless** **#Opportunity** **#Careful** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-29-every-no-is-a-vote-for-a-future-yes/

Tues. May 5, 2026: The Weekend Fuels the Week

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Waning Moon

Sunny and pleasant

Our last day of no retrogrades until sometime next year! It’s been quite the ride.

Friday,  I honored the General Strike. At least as far as not going out and spending money and not working for someone else. I trotted down to the post office to mail a few things right after breakfast. Leaving the house without a coat was not my smartest move. But whatever.

Switched out the winter curtains for the lace panels on the two large front windows, the two large windows in my office, my bedroom, the front door, and the door to the porch. Switched the heavy kitchen curtains for the sheer roses on white, and the thick fleece panel at the back door for a sheer curtain that allows one to see the newly wallpapered door. It was a lot of climbing and moving things and swearing. But it looks good and lets in so much more light. I also switched the plain white twinkle lights around the living room window for a set of tiki lights that were originally bought for an event on Cape, and, for some reason, that box made it out here. But they are festive and fun.

My bad hip was very unhappy by the end of it. The chairs in Studio 9 look good, but were uncomfortable. My bad hip took umbrage almost immediately on Thursday night, and the good hip got grumbly soon after. Even though I stretched them both out in yoga Thursday night and Friday morning, I had trouble all day Friday.

I don’t like blackout curtains for myself, and don’t use them at any time of year.

Once the curtains were switched out, it was time to take the fleece off the furniture and replace it with yoga blankets. Then it was time to switch out the fabric on the tables, etc., in the living room and the kitchen. I didn’t get the coffee table done yet, or the table in my office.

After lunch, I put the tuna steak in the teriyaki marinade, and turned it every hour.

I set the outdoor rugs on the back balcony, positioned the bench, the bistro table and chairs, and the small red side table. It was still too cold to put out the plants, but I put up the birdbath (and filled it) and the wind chimes. And it was too cold to set up the folding tables on the porch and put the seedlings back out. But I did as much as I could, hoping I could do more as the weekend progressed. And I’ll keep adding fun stuff and hanging baskets over the coming weeks, until it’s fully an enchanted garden out there.

The marinaded tuna was so good! I would definitely make that again. I made mashed potatoes and steamed some vegetables to go with it.

Got dressed in Real People Clothes, slapped a pain patch on my hip, and walked down to First Friday. Stopped at the opening of the Future Labs show to support my colleagues and catch up with a few people. Popped next door to Installation Space, where I caught up with some cohort colleagues.

Even with the pain patch, I was in pain, so I came home pretty quickly and recovered on the sofa (prepped for summer) with Bea. I considered keeping the pain patch on overnight, but one is only supposed to have it on for 8 hours max, and I had it on for 3, so I took it off. I rolled out the hip on my foam roller before bedtime, which helped. If I use the same thing, it stops working, but if I switch things up between the foam roller, the acupressure mat, yoga stretches, rolling on the tennis ball, it seems to work better. When I eventually get a doctor’s appointment, I’ll see if there’s something else we can do.

I finally settled to take a look at the Kentucky Derby entrants, and was extremely angry that 24 horses were entered. It was bad enough when the field was expanded to 20, but 24? That’s putting every horse and jockey in the race in even more danger than the usual racing danger. The greed and hubris is out of control. Not surprising in 2026, but still.

Slept well, woke up to rain on Saturday. The hip was still sore, but more discomfort than pain. The morning routine was fine.

After breakfast, I headed out in the rain. First to Big Y, to pick up what I’d forgotten on Thursday. Then to the Farmers’ Market. I managed a parking spot in the nearest lot and was second in line, a few minutes before opening. By the time the opening bell, rang, there was quite the line.

I got my eggs from my favorite egg vendor, and stopped at Cricket Creek’s stall for some cheese for my mom. They have soap now, so at some point in the summer, I will have to try some. And I got a cranberry pecan sourdough bread from a baker.

Headed home, having taken care of everything in 45 minutes.

Checked the Derby field – 5 scratches by 10 AM, which was a good sign. Sorry to see The Puma was one of them, due to leg swelling, but better safe than sorry. Renegade was the favorite. An old friend was up on So Happy. I’m acquainted with the rider of Further Ado, and Gun Runner was Further’s sire, so that was worth a look. I considered Incredibolt as my longshot pick, but until I see them, I don’t like to make a decision. DRF didn’t post the usual photos/videos with each listing, and I haven’t paid attention over the past few months to the prep races. Digging into some of the horses, I really liked both White Shark and Albus – but not for the Derby. Ocelli – a 70-1 shot, is always tempting to show. When I covered racing, I often placed a show bet on the longest shot on the board, just for fun (and once won $350 on a $5 bet).

Wrapped up my last category in the contest, wrote the reviews for the winners, chose the finalists, and sent off the scoring sheets. That felt good.

Had the cranberry pecan sourdough bread for lunch, which was quite good. And felt completely wiped out. I did some housework – because there is always housework, but gave myself the rest of the day to not worry about doing stuff.

I didn’t do much in the afternoon, although I made banana cream pudding and put a turkey meatloaf into the oven. The meatloaf turned out perfectly, and the pudding was good.

Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby, a 23-1 shot, with the first female trainer, Cherie Devaux, to win the Derby. Woo-hoo! My pal Great White was scratched at the gate for bucking his jockey off, which, I’m sorry, just made me laugh, although all the horses had to be unloaded and reloaded into the gate. I later heard the horse had fallen in the gate, which was more concerning, but he’s not injured. (I felt guilty for my earlier amusement, though). Renegade, the favorite, came in second. And Ocelli, the 70-1, came in third. Had I bet on him, I would have gotten some cash. (I didn’t bet on anyone, I’m not doing online betting).

Get this: the NEW YORK TIMES got the winner’s name wrong. The effing NY TIMES likely used AI and said “Golden Temple” won the Derby in the live updates. There was no horse named “Golden Temple” in the race. The winner was Golden TEMPO. Get a clue, people. This is your JOB. You can at least get the effing name right. This kind of mistake by the NEW YORK TIMES is not okay. It’s not surprising, considering what unreliable bootlickers they’ve become, but it’s not okay. If you can’t trust them to get a horse’s name right, you can’t trust them on anything else, either.

But we knew that, already, as soon as they hired a climate change denier as a staff writer.

Assholes.

Up at the normal time on Sunday. I baked Nutella rolls, which is a cinnamon roll pastry, but instead of the cinnamon filling, I used a jar of Nutella. I need to find a better way to roll it tightly, but it rose well, baked well, and was very yummy. Took longer than I hoped though, with all the mixing and the kneading, and two rises.

I did the Community Tarot Reading for the week, which you can read here. We’ve switched to The Forager’s Daughter deck, which is so beautiful.

In the late morning, I attempted another omlette, wanting to eat something before I left for the show. It turned out PERFECTLY! I was so proud of myself. It was fluffy, the filling was just at the perfect temperature, I got the foldy bit almost right. I was so happy. And, it was delicious. Using the right pan made a big difference, as did following Elizabeth David’s instructions, in my favorite of her books, AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE.

I did not have a glass of wine, since I was driving.

Pulled on a dress, some accessories, slapped on some makeup, and got into the car. It was raining a little when I left, so I was happy for my new windshield wipers. Pittsfield wasn’t fun to drive through, but once I did the turn onto South Street, it wasn’t bad down 7 all the way to the turnoff for Lenox. The season hasn’t started, so there wasn’t much traffic in Lenox, and I got down to Shakespeare & Co. without a problem. Parked near the Bernstein Theatre, checked in, hung out with some of my colleagues until the house opened. Some people I’d met at WAM’s event in North Adams a few weeks ago were there, and it was nice to catch up with them.

The show itself was so beautiful. Nora Marlow Smith’s treehouse set was absolutely gorgeous, and Madeline Hebert’s lighting design was terrific. David Lane’s puppets were delightfully whimsical. Stella Schwartz’s costumes supported the stories and characters beautifully. Marcy McGuigan, Jennie M. Jadow, and Mel MacQuarrie were lovely in their roles, and Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill’s direction flowed well.

I was already a fan of this play, by Deborah Zoe Laufer, when I saw WAM’s reading at Ventfort Hall last summer, and it was delightful to see how it blossomed into a full production (no pun intended, since plants are so central to the play).

It was a truly lovely experience in the theatre, and I’m so glad I’ve been part of the team advocating for this script. I was invited to stay after the performance and lift a glass with the company, which I did, and came away with a small spider plant (there were plants up for grabs in the lobby from the previous night’s plant swap event). They were going on to have drinks and hang out at Dr. Sax House in Lenox (owned by a board member), but I needed to get home.

It was sunny and lovely driving back, a really nice stretch. Being a Sunday afternoon out of season, there wasn’t much traffic, and even Pittsfield wasn’t all that bad.

I stopped at Adams Fresh Market and picked up an apple pie, then stopped again on the way home for gas. I was only down by a quarter of a tank (three quarters left), but since we don’t know how high gas prices will go, or if there’s going to be a gas shortage this summer, I topped it up (for the same price that used to fill half the tank). I generally fill it when I hit half a tank, because I hate getting low. I’ve been driving on this quarter tank since the end of March, when I filled it up after getting my light fixed. Walking to as much as I can when I don’t have a lot to carry makes a difference.

Home, peeled off the party clothes, put on comfy clothes, cooked dinner, and then just. . .relaxed. There was nothing else hanging over me that night. There was plenty of coulds/shoulds, but no “have tos.” So I hung out with cats.

Monday morning was cool, but sunny. Up at the usual time, morning routine was fine. I’m adding the deck to the routine after breakfast for the season, where I change the water in the hanging birdbath, and, once the plants go out, I’ll see if anything needs to be watered.

I sent off the invoice for the contest, wrote checks for the remaining bills for the month, and trotted down to the post office to mail them. It was lovely out, just a soft spring morning.

Okay, a little pollen-y, and I was a little sneezy at times, but overall, terrific.

Got home, did some admin work, and joined the Feminist Writing Community session. Once Hampshire College closes, I’m not sure what will happen.

But yesterday’s session gave me structured writing time to work on BETTING MAN. I got about 1200 words done on it, slowed down because I hadn’t done enough research ahead of time. I was writing a polo match in this chapter, and it’s been a minute (quite a few years) since I attended one, so I had to refresh my memory.

Had my lunch break, caught up on some email, did the day’s marketing, and posted the tarot reading where necessary. The invoice I sent earlier that morning was paid by lunch time, which just made me happy.

Dug into the ghostwriting in the afternoon. I was slower than I would have liked due to the research needs of that, too.

While I feel for the employees of Spirit Airlines who lost their jobs, can we stop romanticizing the airline? They were crap. Yeah, cheap, but horrid to deal with. I flew them once, to visit horse racing friends in Florida, and it was the worst flying experience of my life. I swore I would never fly them again, and I never did. And Delta refusing to serve snacks and beverages on flights under 350 miles isn’t “recession” – it’s greed. They can afford it. Cut back on the CEO’s obscene salary and you can fund snacks for 40 years. But airline passengers are such sheep that they will just put up with mistreatment rather than pull their money out of the industry until it changes. No more industry bailouts when billionaires are getting tax cuts.

Don’t even get me started on the Met Gala. The fact that Anna Wintour brought on the Trash Billionaire Couple as chairs doesn’t elevate them. It tarnishes what she spent decades building. No, I didn’t watch. I never do. The whole event has made me queasy for years, because it’s about rich people showing off, not genuinely supporting the art of fashion.

On a happier note, I was thrilled that Bess Wohl won the Pulitzer for her play LIBERATION. I’m happy both because the play deserved the recognition and it certainly will have an impact when WAM produces her play CAMP SIEGFRIED later this season.

Heated up leftovers, enjoyed some quiet time on the porch, and then went back to the ghostwriting. Didn’t get quite where I hoped to be by the end of the night, but I’m close. It has to be done by tomorrow no matter what, so it has to get done.

Much as I didn’t want to order anything from Botanical Interests because they lied about their catalogue, they do have the one kind of cat grass my monsters like, so I bought 3 large packets of that, and my favorite deep purple nasturtiums. Much, much less than I usually buy from them in a season. Those seeds arrived today. So, as the planting days roll through over the next few weeks, I have a lot to plant, between the seeds from different companies.

I hope by tomorrow, I can start putting things out on the front porch. I will wait out back until Friday, I think, because night temperatures are still dipping into the 30’s.

This morning, I was up at the usual time. Morning routine was fine. It’s supposed to be in the high 70’s today. I will put a meal in the crockpot after breakfast. We hope to run an errand this morning (maybe several) in the car. Depending on how long that takes, I hope to get some work done on BETTING MAN before switching over to the ghostwriting. I hope to get a lot done before I head out to yoga.

Hope your week has had a good start!

“You should never wait for the world to catch up to your obsolescence." - Futurist Jim Carroll

Here's a truth to consider: your gut feels the pivot long before your head admits it.

Sometimes we are forced into a career change or pivot. Other times, we need to make the decision on our own.

Either way, it's a gut-wrenching moment.

I know that when I was thinking about leaving the corporate world behind back in 1990, I was pretty miserable. My career track had changed due to a merger; my opportunities vanished; my successful path forward was now in doubt. And yet, I struggled mightily with the idea of moving from career certainty to becoming a self-employed unknown chasing a future that didn't yet exist.

But I went through with it, and it turned out to be the right thing to do.

Here's what I've learned in the decades since: when a pivot is forced on you, you go through something a lot like the stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, and eventually acceptance. When the pivot is your own choice, the same thing happens, just in slow motion. You sit in denial that things have to change. You get angry that they have to. And eventually, hopefully, you accept it.

As I wrote in my book Now What? Reinvention and the Role of Optimism in Finding Your New Future, the faster you get to acceptance, the quicker you can reinvent.

So how do you get to acceptance? You learn to recognize the signals. Some triggers will tell you when it's time:

The expiry of your relevance

The "soul-crushing" signal

The need for reinvention velocity

The "Sunday night" signal

Read about them in the full post.

And one trigger that sits apart from the rest: if you are drowning your career misery in substance abuse, the pivot question has already answered itself. The first move isn't a career change. It's getting help, from yourself or from someone trained to give it. The pivot comes after.

Here's the filter, though: not every bad week is a signal. Burnout, a difficult client, a rough quarter — those are weather, not climate. The triggers above only matter when they become persistent, structural, and patterned. If a vacation fixes it, it wasn't a pivot signal.

You should never find yourself thinking "I should have jumped sooner."

Because when you wonder if it's time to pivot, it probably already is.

---
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing this series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, because he thinks he has mastered the art of the pivot!

**#Obsolescence** **#Pivot** **#Gut** **#Signals** **#Acceptance** **#Change** **#Reinvention** **#Relevance** **#Triggers** **#Career** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Denial** **#Grief** **#Movement** **#NowWhat** **#Optimism** **#Soul** **#AI** **#Recognition**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-28-you-should-never-wait-for-the-world-to-catch-up-to-your-obsolescence/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

Fri. May 1, 2026: Of Shakespeare and Strikes

Friday, May 1, 2026

Full Moon

Beltane

General Strike

Cloudy/rainy and cool

Happy Friday!

I’m honoring the General Strike today, which means no client work, no shopping, no marketing posts, and as little time spent online as possible. And no trip to the laundromat!

Online meditation group was good, and made Charlotte happy. Our group leader loves writing and poetry. She read Mary Oliver to us (which she often does, Mary is one of her favorite poets). She also encouraged us to read a poem every morning as a meditative practice. I’ve been reading one every morning for April’s poetry month, and often read RATTLE’s daily poem, but I like the idea of doing it more mindfully each day beyond the month. Maybe as part of my morning 30-minute meditation? I’ll play with it. Maybe it would be a better way to wind down the workday?

SELF magazine closed after 47 years, because Condé Nast is greedier and more bootlicking than ever. I was a subscriber back in the 90’s, and then got tired of it around the time I moved from NY because it got repetitive. I still have some of the recipes and information I pulled from old issues in a binder. I stopped being their target audience a long time ago, but there were years when some of their information was useful.

My life has changed enough so I could drop publications I used to subscribe to because I felt I had to for professional reasons. I used to be a magazine junkie (especially when I traveled in the UK), but the voices have been so flattened over the years that most of them aren’t worth it. Plus, a lot of the ones I enjoyed have closed. As a freelancer, monthly subscriptions for things don’t work for me. I am not paid on specific days. It fluctuates. I have enough monthly expenses with rent, utilities, etc. If I really like something, I’ll buy a year when I can afford it, but ONLY if there’s no auto-renew. Which I why I prefer to pay by check. Many publications just don’t fulfill my reading needs anymore, for a huge variety of reasons. And I won’t read anything on Substack because the company is very far out of alignment with my values, so a lot of the journalists that scuttled over there don’t get my time, attention, and certainly not my dollars, even if I respect them.

After breakfast, I grabbed the bags and headed out. It was sprinkling rather than raining, and I made the most of it. Picked up a prescription for my mom at the pharmacy, and did the grocery shopping. I didn’t shop much for the apocalypse, but I did score a gorgeous piece of tuna steak my fishmonger had just cut. Forgot the oranges I need for Tuesday’s crockpot citrus chicken, so I will swing by and pick those up after Saturday’s Farmers’ Market. Dropped off some mail at the post office, stopped by the liquor store, ended at the library to drop off/pick up books. Headed home, navigating around the road construction, which had the bottom of our street blocked off (again, with no advance notification), so I came in the top, went down another one way, and cut through the parking lot backing up to ours.

Home, hauled everything up the stairs, put it away. It started raining harder by then. Did the day’s marketing, and went through some email.

Joined the Freelance Friends chat. We talked food and drink, so it was even more fun than usual.

I had trouble settling into work. I wanted to take a nap. Now, I’m not a napper. If I nap in the afternoon, I usually don’t sleep that night. I didn’t get as much ghostwriting work done as I hoped, but again, I’m happy with the quality of it.

I got some information and questions from the Clark liaison about the event mid-month down at Shakespeare & Co. I asked my guest, got answers, and will make the arrangements with them today. The Clark is so good about stuff like that.

Pizza for dinner (Thursday has become pizza night lately). I wavered about whether or not to go to the show or go back into the work, but realized I really wanted to see the show, so I put on Real People Clothes and some makeup, got in the car, and headed over to Studio 9.

Studio 9 is an impressive venue. Intimate, but high ceilings and built for sound (it was constructed primarily for music). Parking would be an issue further into the season, but it was okay for that night. It’s just a little too far for me to comfortably walk, so driving was a necessity. My friend/colleague was happy to see me. I met the woman who runs the venue, and we got into a lively tech discussion. I sat with one of my friends from A4A, and we talked about projects. She showed me the bookcase her partner recently built in their house – amazing! They both have lots of books, too. Waved to some other people I recognized, who were seated across the room, including the neighbor I met at Monday’s event, and one of the poets from Monday’s event was on my other side.

The show itself, SHAKESPARE DUETS, was amazing. It was created by two actors, Andrew Codispoti and Ariana Karp. I’ve seen Andrew’s work in other Elsewhere Shakespeare productions and really like it. Ariana lives in California, and came out to do the show. They did Shakespearean scenes involving two characters, in this show from JULIUS CASEAR, HAMLET, TWELFTH NIGHT, MACBETH, and ROMEO AND JULIET. The total connection and focus and the way they can switch roles (as they did in HAMLET) with completely fresh interpretations that also built on each other was gorgeous. They know the whole canon inside out, and know how to make it immediate. It’s not the sonorous, presentational technique one sees so often. They embodied the text and brought it alive in beautiful ways. I especially loved the character choices in the TWELFTH NIGHT scene, and got to talk to them about it after. The precision and detail and flow of their work is stunning.

Ariana reminds me of what Susanna Centlivre is like in my imagination, as I write about her.

It was pretty dark by the time I had to drive home, but I managed it, without too much stress. It made me realize what a good choice it was to book a hotel the night after my reading, though.

Came home and took a while to settle, but so happy that I showed up and had that beautiful experience. My friend did such a good job producing the festival. It’s the second one – the first was last year. It’s so much work, I know, but I hope it continues, and I hope he gets the support he needs for it to continue.

Slept well until just before 5, when someone tossed up a furball, and then Tessa and Charlotte started fussing. I told them, “hey, I’m on strike today” and they said, “not with us” and then Willa crashed over a table with pictures and books and other stuff in my office, so that was that and I was up.

The morning routine was fine. Since I’m honoring the strike today, I’m not doing client work. I am, however, switching over curtains and furniture coverings and fabrics to the summer fabrics (even though it’s still in the 30’s at night). I’m going to celebrate Beltane, and tonight, the next show opens at FutureLabs during First Friday, so I’ll nip down to that for a bit.

Tomorrow is the Farmers’ Market, and I have to pick up the things at the grocery store I forgot, and wrap up the contest entries. Sunday is the opening of ROOTED down in Lenox. Busy again, but good busy!

Have a great weekend!

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The move came about because I had been identified by the national office as someone who could implement the opportunities of that 'something big on a nationwide basis. They offered me a position to chase my ideas, albeit in a bigger, well-funded way - and I accepted.

That moment in time was the final, terrifying step in my ultimate pivot. I wasn't just changing roles; I was abandoning "certainty" for a wild risk on what would eventually become the Internet. And yet, I've never looked back with regret at the decision I made to move forward. I often wonder what my world would be like today if I had let that regret define my future.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Forty-one years later, my accounting title is an artifact, but the decision to chase a future without a name remains the smartest move I ever made.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The move came about because I had been identified by the national office as someone who could implement the opportunities of that 'something big on a nationwide basis. They offered me a position to chase my ideas, albeit in a bigger, well-funded way - and I accepted.

That moment in time was the final, terrifying step in my ultimate pivot. I wasn't just changing roles; I was abandoning "certainty" for a wild risk on what would eventually become the Internet. And yet, I've never looked back with regret at the decision I made to move forward. I often wonder what my world would be like today if I had let that regret define my future.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Forty-one years later, my accounting title is an artifact, but the decision to chase a future without a name remains the smartest move I ever made.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The move came about because I had been identified by the national office as someone who could implement the opportunities of that 'something big on a nationwide basis. They offered me a position to chase my ideas, albeit in a bigger, well-funded way - and I accepted.

That moment in time was the final, terrifying step in my ultimate pivot. I wasn't just changing roles; I was abandoning "certainty" for a wild risk on what would eventually become the Internet. And yet, I've never looked back with regret at the decision I made to move forward. I often wonder what my world would be like today if I had let that regret define my future.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Forty-one years later, my accounting title is an artifact, but the decision to chase a future without a name remains the smartest move I ever made.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The move came about because I had been identified by the national office as someone who could implement the opportunities of that 'something big on a nationwide basis. They offered me a position to chase my ideas, albeit in a bigger, well-funded way - and I accepted.

That moment in time was the final, terrifying step in my ultimate pivot. I wasn't just changing roles; I was abandoning "certainty" for a wild risk on what would eventually become the Internet. And yet, I've never looked back with regret at the decision I made to move forward. I often wonder what my world would be like today if I had let that regret define my future.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Forty-one years later, my accounting title is an artifact, but the decision to chase a future without a name remains the smartest move I ever made.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

“Never put yourself in a position in which you regret what you didn’t do. - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Forty-one years ago today, I stepped onto a plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading toward a national office in Toronto, Ontario, and a future that didn't yet have a name.

I was a Chartered Accountant by trade, but my heart was already in the "pipes"—the emerging, messy world of computer connectivity. For three years, I had already immersed myself deep into the opportunities that came from the online world, understanding the power of global collaboration, online research, knowledge acceleration, and disruptive ideas. In my heart and in my mind, I just knew that something big was on the way, and I wanted to be a part of it.

The move came about because I had been identified by the national office as someone who could implement the opportunities of that 'something big on a nationwide basis. They offered me a position to chase my ideas, albeit in a bigger, well-funded way - and I accepted.

That moment in time was the final, terrifying step in my ultimate pivot. I wasn't just changing roles; I was abandoning "certainty" for a wild risk on what would eventually become the Internet. And yet, I've never looked back with regret at the decision I made to move forward. I often wonder what my world would be like today if I had let that regret define my future.

41 years on, I know I did the right thing.

Many times in your life, you will need to confront similar big decisions. Should you make the big, bold leap? Should you take the daring jump into the unknown? Can you really hold your breath, close your eyes, take the plunge into tomorrow, and hope for the best?

If you don't, you might end up regretting not doing the most important thing you should have done.

Never put yourself in that situation.

The greatest risk you will ever take is the risk of staying where you are when you know you were meant for what’s next.

Forty-one years later, my accounting title is an artifact, but the decision to chase a future without a name remains the smartest move I ever made.

Don't ask what happens if you fail.

Ask what happens if you never try at all.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has been in the online world since 1982. He's seen it go from its nascent beginnings to the massive global machine that it is today.

**#Regret** **#Leap** **#Decision** **#Courage** **#Risk** **#Future** **#Anniversary** **#Journey** **#Pivot** **#Bold** **#Unknown** **#Voice** **#Trust** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Toronto** **#Halifax** **#Accounting** **#Internet** **#Plunge** **#Try** **#Failure** **#Choice** **#Destiny** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-26-never-put-yourself-in-a-position-in-which-you-regret-what-you-didnt-do/

🤣 Actor Denzel Washington has reached out to me about a #freelance gig! And yes, I am indeed board-certified by the Board of Editors in the #Life #Sciences, in whose directory he says he found me. Fellow #MedicalEditors, watch out for this #scam email. It’s arriving under lots of different names.

#SchlePaZ - Die schlechtesten Projektanfragen aller Zeiten

"Projektleiter"

Projektleister machen Pläne, kommunizieren, halten Aufgaben vor, Risiken, ... Offensichtlich trifft das aber nicht im Anlagen- und Maschinenbau zu

https://www.alles-bekloppte.de/projektleiter/

#job #jobs #jobsearch #jobsuche #freelance #freelancer #it #fail

“Always know that real progress is often invisible, boring, repetitive.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Your success will often not involve huge home runs that have you cheering with joy. It will come about through small bunts, working the bases, advancing slowly but surely towards a goal, and muttering about the pace.

Treat your progress as such.

Right now, this can be a challenge. After all, we live in a "highlight reel" culture. We see the successful keynote, the published book, or the smooth career pivot and assume that it all happened in a flash of inspiration. But in my 36-year voyage, I’ve learned that the most profound breakthroughs and the biggest wins are rarely the result of a sudden lightning bolt. They are the result of the quiet, daily discipline of showing up when it feels like nothing is changing. Playing the clubs. Putting in the work. Advancing slowly but steadily.

I did a lot of small events in rural America and small towns in Canada before I hit the big stages of Las Vegas. It was often boringly dull, excruciatingly tiring, and sometimes, with a detached audience, not terribly motivating. But through that, I learned that success is often built on "invisible progress." The small steps that get you closer to a big goal.

For me, success and learning are about the hundredth hour spent in the lab struggling with a Linux configuration.

It’s the years of writing a Daily Inspiration post without missing a single workday.

It’s the repetitive act of studying a disruptive trend long before the world notices it.

It was spending time on stages that sometimes I did not want to be on.

Most people quit during this "boring" phase. They mistake the lack of immediate feedback for a lack of progress. They want the dopamine hit of a "win" every day. But as a practitioner, you have to realize that you are building up your skills, capabilities, and knowledge.

The amateur waits for the quick hit.

The master relies on patience and effort.

Success isn't a sprint; it’s the compound interest of your daily discipline.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has put in the work. He still does. Every day.

**#Progress** **#Invisible** **#Boring** **#Repetitive** **#Patience** **#Discipline** **#Daily** **#ShowingUp** **#Consistency** **#Compound** **#Effort** **#Foundation** **#Quiet** **#SmallSteps** **#Work** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Mastery** **#Persistence** **#Grind** **#Building** **#Success** **#Highlights** **#Bunts** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-24-always-know-that-real-progress-is-often-invisible-boring-repetitive/

“Always know that real progress is often invisible, boring, repetitive.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Your success will often not involve huge home runs that have you cheering with joy. It will come about through small bunts, working the bases, advancing slowly but surely towards a goal, and muttering about the pace.

Treat your progress as such.

Right now, this can be a challenge. After all, we live in a "highlight reel" culture. We see the successful keynote, the published book, or the smooth career pivot and assume that it all happened in a flash of inspiration. But in my 36-year voyage, I’ve learned that the most profound breakthroughs and the biggest wins are rarely the result of a sudden lightning bolt. They are the result of the quiet, daily discipline of showing up when it feels like nothing is changing. Playing the clubs. Putting in the work. Advancing slowly but steadily.

I did a lot of small events in rural America and small towns in Canada before I hit the big stages of Las Vegas. It was often boringly dull, excruciatingly tiring, and sometimes, with a detached audience, not terribly motivating. But through that, I learned that success is often built on "invisible progress." The small steps that get you closer to a big goal.

For me, success and learning are about the hundredth hour spent in the lab struggling with a Linux configuration.

It’s the years of writing a Daily Inspiration post without missing a single workday.

It’s the repetitive act of studying a disruptive trend long before the world notices it.

It was spending time on stages that sometimes I did not want to be on.

Most people quit during this "boring" phase. They mistake the lack of immediate feedback for a lack of progress. They want the dopamine hit of a "win" every day. But as a practitioner, you have to realize that you are building up your skills, capabilities, and knowledge.

The amateur waits for the quick hit.

The master relies on patience and effort.

Success isn't a sprint; it’s the compound interest of your daily discipline.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has put in the work. He still does. Every day.

**#Progress** **#Invisible** **#Boring** **#Repetitive** **#Patience** **#Discipline** **#Daily** **#ShowingUp** **#Consistency** **#Compound** **#Effort** **#Foundation** **#Quiet** **#SmallSteps** **#Work** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Mastery** **#Persistence** **#Grind** **#Building** **#Success** **#Highlights** **#Bunts** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-24-always-know-that-real-progress-is-often-invisible-boring-repetitive/

“Always know that real progress is often invisible, boring, repetitive.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Your success will often not involve huge home runs that have you cheering with joy. It will come about through small bunts, working the bases, advancing slowly but surely towards a goal, and muttering about the pace.

Treat your progress as such.

Right now, this can be a challenge. After all, we live in a "highlight reel" culture. We see the successful keynote, the published book, or the smooth career pivot and assume that it all happened in a flash of inspiration. But in my 36-year voyage, I’ve learned that the most profound breakthroughs and the biggest wins are rarely the result of a sudden lightning bolt. They are the result of the quiet, daily discipline of showing up when it feels like nothing is changing. Playing the clubs. Putting in the work. Advancing slowly but steadily.

I did a lot of small events in rural America and small towns in Canada before I hit the big stages of Las Vegas. It was often boringly dull, excruciatingly tiring, and sometimes, with a detached audience, not terribly motivating. But through that, I learned that success is often built on "invisible progress." The small steps that get you closer to a big goal.

For me, success and learning are about the hundredth hour spent in the lab struggling with a Linux configuration.

It’s the years of writing a Daily Inspiration post without missing a single workday.

It’s the repetitive act of studying a disruptive trend long before the world notices it.

It was spending time on stages that sometimes I did not want to be on.

Most people quit during this "boring" phase. They mistake the lack of immediate feedback for a lack of progress. They want the dopamine hit of a "win" every day. But as a practitioner, you have to realize that you are building up your skills, capabilities, and knowledge.

The amateur waits for the quick hit.

The master relies on patience and effort.

Success isn't a sprint; it’s the compound interest of your daily discipline.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has put in the work. He still does. Every day.

**#Progress** **#Invisible** **#Boring** **#Repetitive** **#Patience** **#Discipline** **#Daily** **#ShowingUp** **#Consistency** **#Compound** **#Effort** **#Foundation** **#Quiet** **#SmallSteps** **#Work** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Mastery** **#Persistence** **#Grind** **#Building** **#Success** **#Highlights** **#Bunts** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-24-always-know-that-real-progress-is-often-invisible-boring-repetitive/

“Always know that real progress is often invisible, boring, repetitive.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Your success will often not involve huge home runs that have you cheering with joy. It will come about through small bunts, working the bases, advancing slowly but surely towards a goal, and muttering about the pace.

Treat your progress as such.

Right now, this can be a challenge. After all, we live in a "highlight reel" culture. We see the successful keynote, the published book, or the smooth career pivot and assume that it all happened in a flash of inspiration. But in my 36-year voyage, I’ve learned that the most profound breakthroughs and the biggest wins are rarely the result of a sudden lightning bolt. They are the result of the quiet, daily discipline of showing up when it feels like nothing is changing. Playing the clubs. Putting in the work. Advancing slowly but steadily.

I did a lot of small events in rural America and small towns in Canada before I hit the big stages of Las Vegas. It was often boringly dull, excruciatingly tiring, and sometimes, with a detached audience, not terribly motivating. But through that, I learned that success is often built on "invisible progress." The small steps that get you closer to a big goal.

For me, success and learning are about the hundredth hour spent in the lab struggling with a Linux configuration.

It’s the years of writing a Daily Inspiration post without missing a single workday.

It’s the repetitive act of studying a disruptive trend long before the world notices it.

It was spending time on stages that sometimes I did not want to be on.

Most people quit during this "boring" phase. They mistake the lack of immediate feedback for a lack of progress. They want the dopamine hit of a "win" every day. But as a practitioner, you have to realize that you are building up your skills, capabilities, and knowledge.

The amateur waits for the quick hit.

The master relies on patience and effort.

Success isn't a sprint; it’s the compound interest of your daily discipline.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has put in the work. He still does. Every day.

**#Progress** **#Invisible** **#Boring** **#Repetitive** **#Patience** **#Discipline** **#Daily** **#ShowingUp** **#Consistency** **#Compound** **#Effort** **#Foundation** **#Quiet** **#SmallSteps** **#Work** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Mastery** **#Persistence** **#Grind** **#Building** **#Success** **#Highlights** **#Bunts** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-24-always-know-that-real-progress-is-often-invisible-boring-repetitive/

“Always know that real progress is often invisible, boring, repetitive.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Your success will often not involve huge home runs that have you cheering with joy. It will come about through small bunts, working the bases, advancing slowly but surely towards a goal, and muttering about the pace.

Treat your progress as such.

Right now, this can be a challenge. After all, we live in a "highlight reel" culture. We see the successful keynote, the published book, or the smooth career pivot and assume that it all happened in a flash of inspiration. But in my 36-year voyage, I’ve learned that the most profound breakthroughs and the biggest wins are rarely the result of a sudden lightning bolt. They are the result of the quiet, daily discipline of showing up when it feels like nothing is changing. Playing the clubs. Putting in the work. Advancing slowly but steadily.

I did a lot of small events in rural America and small towns in Canada before I hit the big stages of Las Vegas. It was often boringly dull, excruciatingly tiring, and sometimes, with a detached audience, not terribly motivating. But through that, I learned that success is often built on "invisible progress." The small steps that get you closer to a big goal.

For me, success and learning are about the hundredth hour spent in the lab struggling with a Linux configuration.

It’s the years of writing a Daily Inspiration post without missing a single workday.

It’s the repetitive act of studying a disruptive trend long before the world notices it.

It was spending time on stages that sometimes I did not want to be on.

Most people quit during this "boring" phase. They mistake the lack of immediate feedback for a lack of progress. They want the dopamine hit of a "win" every day. But as a practitioner, you have to realize that you are building up your skills, capabilities, and knowledge.

The amateur waits for the quick hit.

The master relies on patience and effort.

Success isn't a sprint; it’s the compound interest of your daily discipline.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll has put in the work. He still does. Every day.

**#Progress** **#Invisible** **#Boring** **#Repetitive** **#Patience** **#Discipline** **#Daily** **#ShowingUp** **#Consistency** **#Compound** **#Effort** **#Foundation** **#Quiet** **#SmallSteps** **#Work** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Mastery** **#Persistence** **#Grind** **#Building** **#Success** **#Highlights** **#Bunts** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-24-always-know-that-real-progress-is-often-invisible-boring-repetitive/

Tues. April 28, 2026: Shakespeare & Sonnets

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Waxing Moon

Sunny and cool

Here we are, in another week! I hope yours started well.

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.

Friday, I folded the laundry and put it away after breakfast, got some housework done, tried to reach maintenance and failed. I reached them later, and they planned to stop by either late Friday or early Monday.

Sat down and finished/did the polish on the ghostwriting. It took me until nearly 3, but I got it done and out the door – two days early! My next assignment is due May 6.

I decided to call it a wrap for the workday, and put the salmon with miso/honey glaze into the slow cooker. It turned out really well. It only needs two hours in the slow cooker, and tastes wonderful.

It’s the first time I worked with miso soup mix (I love miso soup). I may have to make those packets part of my pantry staples.

Maintenance didn’t make it by the end of the day, which meant first thing Monday.

I was waiting for a delivery that never showed up (although the tracking insisted it would be delivered Friday evening), and missed the closing of the gallery show.

Slept so-so into Saturday, up early. Housework. Most of the day was housework, including a deep clean of the bathroom (in case they had to switch the toilet out on Monday). I mean, it was time in the spring cleaning roster anyway, but it took much longer than I expected, because I moved everything movable out, scrubbed corners, wiped down crown and chair rail molding, cleaned the heating vents, scrubbed out sink, toilet and tub more thoroughly than the weekly cleaning, went through things that tend to pile up on surfaces, wiped the windows, bulbs, etc., along with the regular vacuum and floor mop. You wouldn’t think a small bathroom would take that long, but it did. Willa and Tessa supervised.

In between waiting for things to dry, I worked on contest entries.

The delivery showed up in the late morning, and Charlotte supervised that unpacking, then played in the box for the rest of the day.

The woman who lived in the upstairs apartment in the green house across the street (and parks next to me) moved out. I’m sad to see her go. She was a good neighbor, and only lived here for a year. I hope the next person who moves in is nice (and doesn’t try to take my parking spot).

In the late afternoon, I put on Real People clothes and headed for the gallery. Climbed a ladder and took down my wooden spoon sculpture, and retrieved the collage. Packed those into the car, and picked up takeout on the way home. We ate. I changed into Better Real People Clothes and headed down to Mosaic Gallery and the Elsewhere Shakespeare production of KING LEAR (my cohort colleague co-runs the company).

The place was packed, they had to bring out extra chairs, and it was a really well-done 6-actor, 90-minute version. The way they cut the scripts is always so interesting, especially in the way it informs the acting choices. I enjoyed it, saw a bunch of people I know and had quick catch-ups.

It was a lovely night to be on foot there and back, although the temperature dropped overnight back into the 30’s.

Unfortunately, I checked mail/social media when I got home, and saw the news of yet another staged “assassination” attempt, this time at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. All so That Thing can have yet another hissy fit demanding his ballroom. There is no way in hell that a guy carrying that much hardware got through security. There is no way in hell that, if it was real, the dinner would have continued. They didn’t even do a good job staging it. I mean, the press secretary tipped people off ahead of time.

And yes, I know protocols and procedures in these situations. I make my living writing about them, and have done research/deep dive interviews with enough professionals in that field to know how it works, along with collecting a good shelf of procedural handbooks.

This was a load of crap. I could say so much more, but it’s not worth my time.

I was even angrier on Monday when it turns out the security team had the information on the shooter and allowed him in so That Thing and his minions could push harder for the ballroom. Corrupt, grifting jackasses all of them.

Up early on Sunday. Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. This is the last week with the Green Witch Tarot and the Green Witch’s Oracle. Next week we switch decks.

We were supposed to get yet another hard frost Sunday into Monday, so I didn’t dare do any more of the teak oiling.

I papered both the inside and the outside of the kitchen door with the peel-and-stick paper. The inside went well, and I’m proud of matching the panels so carefully. The outside was harder, as though the proportions were slightly off. I’m not sure I like the outcome. I will live with it for a bit. If I don’t, I can always peel it off and try a different pattern.

Instead of going to the artist talk, I stayed to dig into the contest entries. They have to be finished this week. I hadn’t promised anyone I would be there, so I wasn’t letting anyone down. This category has the most entries. I like to go back to the ones I think are the strongest. The first read-through is always how it stands alone. The second is looking at the strongest choices and looking at the details in relation to each other to find the strongest pieces.

Cooked dinner, sat on the porch for a bit. I was tired, and my hip bothered me (it’s been grumpy since late last week). I went to bed early because I was tired, and the hip woke me up a few times. Weird dreams.

Up at the usual time on Monday. We’d had a hard frost – let’s hope this is the last. I want to get things set up outside. The next planting day isn’t until Friday the 1st, so I don’t have to worry about seeds. There are quite a few planting days in May, so I should be able to get in all the seeds.

Posted the Intent for the Week and the Tarot reading. I’m having trouble getting into the computer. I had trouble 3 or 4 times on Monday morning. It better not be going on the fritz.

Maintenance came and worked on the toilet, but the first fix didn’t work, so they had to go out and get more parts for the next fix. Good thing I deep cleaned on Saturday. All I had to do was move things out of that alcove again, and give it another sweep with the broom. But it meant the morning errands had to be moved back.

There’s a big kerfuffle about Xandra Ibarra’s nude performance at the MFA Boston. You can read about it here. The people getting all huffy and offended need to get over themselves. If they don’t like it or agree with it, that’s up to them. But saying it shouldn’t exist/happen – nope. Ibarra made a good point – how much revered art depicts violence against women or nude women? Why aren’t there more conversations about the acts depicted and those histories, as well as the technical skills of the artist? I don’t think it’s a “mockery” of traditional art, as one poster declared it, but a prompt to communication and different ways of viewing the human body in art, policies around the body, and the parameters of a subject’s consent. Laughter isn’t always humor and/or mockery. It can be a defense mechanism. The piece itself was performance art to provoke conversation and part of the museum’s event offerings. It’s not like she just wandered in and started performing. It was a planned performance. Would it have made me uncomfortable if I’d been in the room? Probably, and that means it achieved what it meant to do, and made me look at the issues from more angles.

I’d also like to see the commissioned Buddha sculpture on the High Line in NYC. I’ve never even been on High Line since it was opened. The last time I was in NYC, I was focused on the reading of my play, and didn’t make it over there. You can read about it here.

The toilet was fixed. I’d done admin work during the repair, stuff where I could get interrupted as necessary. I also put together the marketing content calendar for May. I am putting the radio plays into the mix now, too, along with the anthologies in regular rotation. There’s no reason they can’t keep growing their audiences.

Once that was all done, I headed out to the library and then the grocery store. I had to drop off/pick up books. I swapped out the decaf for regular coffee. I showed it at the courtesy desk and the woman burst out laughing, agreeing that me holding a bag of decaf was obviously a mistake, and to just switch them out. Nothing like people in town knowing your quirks! I also picked up a couple of other things.

Home, got everything upstairs and put away. It was too close to lunchtime to start anything else, so I had my lunch and then settled into some work for a few hours. I finished the literary committee work, dug into the contest entries, then switched over to the ghostwriting for a couple of hours.

I didn’t get as far on that as I hoped, but I put in some time and then switched over to contest entries for a couple of hours.

I put on Real People Clothes again and headed down to the R&D Store at MASS MoCA for my colleague’s Sonnets in Conversation event. He’d chosen four sonnets, and five poets created work in response to them, an ekphrastic exercise. One of the poets was from the cohort on which I advised, and it was great to see her again and hear her work. Her work is really wonderful and layered.

The event was interesting, and some of the work resonated with me more than other work did. Which is how it goes. I caught up with a few people, and walked home with someone from the event who turns out to be a neighbor, one house over. We’d never met before, just seen each other on the street. This neighbor is moving out soon, but only about a half a block away, and works at MASS MoCA, so we are likely to keep crossing paths, especially since we’re both Shakespeare lovers.

Heated up some leftovers. I had hoped to get some more contest entries done in the evening, but I was too tired. Instead, I strung the summer lights up on the porch and we sat out there watching the light shift.

Decent night’s sleep, up at the usual time, the typical routine. On today’s agenda: get some of the teak oiling done on the furniture out back, work on BETTING MAN, work on the ghostwriting, work on contest entries. I plan to finally get back to Tuesday night yoga classes tonight. I have to get through a bunch of email – things came through last night that I was too tired to look at, including notes from the ghostwriting assignment I turned in last Friday.

Once I’ve wrapped the contest entries and submitted those, this coming weekend, and ROOTED is open, I need to look over my stage play notes and get those back into the schedule. I need a couple more ten-minute plays, a couple of 20-40 minute plays, and I need to finish up some of the full-lengths. I also have to turn around the edits for the anthology story, but I have until June for that, so I don’t need to rush. I just need to keep it in front of me, so I don’t forget it.

I hope you’re having a great start to your week.

"Success will often depend on what you choose to ignore.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

If you follow me, you will know I'm very big on not following big hype. Far too many trends are overplayed and overemphasized, and yet under-reach with unrealistic potential.

Why is that? Because I've seen over and over and over again what happens when excessively hyped trends don't become real in the short term. But here's a fun fact - I also believe the observation by Bill Gates that we tend to overestimate the impact of a trend in the short term, but underestimate it's impact its impact in the long term.

Which means timing is everything!

So let's put this conundrum into perspective. Many of us are conditioned to believe that success is about absorption. More information, more networking, more trends, more hustle leads to more success - that type of thing. But my own voyage through the global economy has taught me that the opposite is true. As the world gets louder, your success doesn't depend on what you take in. It depends on what you ruthlessly exclude.

The "Infinite Pivot" isn't just about moving toward the new; it's about knowing which 'new' to avoid, and when.

Fast-moving trends can often be a powerful distraction. The buzz they generate It is a chaotic mix of breaking news, viral hype, and the promise of quick riches. But if you jump on too soon, you'll get burned. Too late, and you'll miss the opportunity. Did I mention timing is everything?

There's also the aspect of how real any particular trend might be - and which should be ignored. The most profound shifts in my career happened when I finally built a "cognitive firewall" against trivial trends.

In an era of infinite distraction, the person who can choose what not to care about is the only one who can truly see what's coming.

Don't just filter the future.

Manage your attention.

---
Futurist Jim Carroll has developed a well-honed skill for discovering and managing hype.

**#Ignore** **#Focus** **#Hype** **#Timing** **#Subtraction** **#Clarity** **#Distraction** **#Noise** **#FOMO** **#Trends** **#Attention** **#Filter** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Consensus** **#Quiet** **#Opportunity** **#Strategic** **#Ruthless** **#Exclusion** **#Signal** **#Gates** **#Wisdom** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-23-success-will-often-depend-on-what-you-choose-to-ignore/

"Success will often depend on what you choose to ignore.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

If you follow me, you will know I'm very big on not following big hype. Far too many trends are overplayed and overemphasized, and yet under-reach with unrealistic potential.

Why is that? Because I've seen over and over and over again what happens when excessively hyped trends don't become real in the short term. But here's a fun fact - I also believe the observation by Bill Gates that we tend to overestimate the impact of a trend in the short term, but underestimate it's impact its impact in the long term.

Which means timing is everything!

So let's put this conundrum into perspective. Many of us are conditioned to believe that success is about absorption. More information, more networking, more trends, more hustle leads to more success - that type of thing. But my own voyage through the global economy has taught me that the opposite is true. As the world gets louder, your success doesn't depend on what you take in. It depends on what you ruthlessly exclude.

The "Infinite Pivot" isn't just about moving toward the new; it's about knowing which 'new' to avoid, and when.

Fast-moving trends can often be a powerful distraction. The buzz they generate It is a chaotic mix of breaking news, viral hype, and the promise of quick riches. But if you jump on too soon, you'll get burned. Too late, and you'll miss the opportunity. Did I mention timing is everything?

There's also the aspect of how real any particular trend might be - and which should be ignored. The most profound shifts in my career happened when I finally built a "cognitive firewall" against trivial trends.

In an era of infinite distraction, the person who can choose what not to care about is the only one who can truly see what's coming.

Don't just filter the future.

Manage your attention.

---
Futurist Jim Carroll has developed a well-honed skill for discovering and managing hype.

**#Ignore** **#Focus** **#Hype** **#Timing** **#Subtraction** **#Clarity** **#Distraction** **#Noise** **#FOMO** **#Trends** **#Attention** **#Filter** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Consensus** **#Quiet** **#Opportunity** **#Strategic** **#Ruthless** **#Exclusion** **#Signal** **#Gates** **#Wisdom** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-23-success-will-often-depend-on-what-you-choose-to-ignore/

"Success will often depend on what you choose to ignore.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

If you follow me, you will know I'm very big on not following big hype. Far too many trends are overplayed and overemphasized, and yet under-reach with unrealistic potential.

Why is that? Because I've seen over and over and over again what happens when excessively hyped trends don't become real in the short term. But here's a fun fact - I also believe the observation by Bill Gates that we tend to overestimate the impact of a trend in the short term, but underestimate it's impact its impact in the long term.

Which means timing is everything!

So let's put this conundrum into perspective. Many of us are conditioned to believe that success is about absorption. More information, more networking, more trends, more hustle leads to more success - that type of thing. But my own voyage through the global economy has taught me that the opposite is true. As the world gets louder, your success doesn't depend on what you take in. It depends on what you ruthlessly exclude.

The "Infinite Pivot" isn't just about moving toward the new; it's about knowing which 'new' to avoid, and when.

Fast-moving trends can often be a powerful distraction. The buzz they generate It is a chaotic mix of breaking news, viral hype, and the promise of quick riches. But if you jump on too soon, you'll get burned. Too late, and you'll miss the opportunity. Did I mention timing is everything?

There's also the aspect of how real any particular trend might be - and which should be ignored. The most profound shifts in my career happened when I finally built a "cognitive firewall" against trivial trends.

In an era of infinite distraction, the person who can choose what not to care about is the only one who can truly see what's coming.

Don't just filter the future.

Manage your attention.

---
Futurist Jim Carroll has developed a well-honed skill for discovering and managing hype.

**#Ignore** **#Focus** **#Hype** **#Timing** **#Subtraction** **#Clarity** **#Distraction** **#Noise** **#FOMO** **#Trends** **#Attention** **#Filter** **#Pivot** **#Freelance** **#Lessons** **#Consensus** **#Quiet** **#Opportunity** **#Strategic** **#Ruthless** **#Exclusion** **#Signal** **#Gates** **#Wisdom** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/04/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-23-success-will-often-depend-on-what-you-choose-to-ignore/