The Weekly Fix | 07.13.25
The Quiet Weight We’re All Carrying In 2020, we all said: “When things go back to normal…” But normal never came back. And eventually, we stopped asking.
The Quiet Weight We’re All Carrying
In 2020, we all said:
“When things go back to normal…”
But normal never came back. And eventually, we stopped asking.
Year after year, new vocabulary entered our lives: lockdown, burnout, hybrid, AI, mass layoffs, culture war, climate anxiety.
Every week—something “unprecedented.”
We adapted fast.
What we didn’t do?
Process.
So now, we’re grieving. Quietly. Constantly.
Not always death, but…
- 📅 Plans that no longer make sense
- 🧠 Versions of ourselves that never got to exist
- 🛡️ Safety we assumed we had
- 🤝 Relationships that couldn’t hold the pressure
“I’m tired—but not the kind sleep fixes.”
“Everything is technically fine. But it doesn’t feel fine.”
“I used to be hopeful. I don’t know what I am now.”
That’s grief. It doesn’t always cry or scream.
Sometimes it just… sits. Heavy. Familiar.
If you’ve worked with me—maybe even just followed these posts—you know I love project management. Specifically, the idea of choosing a destination and building a real plan to get there.
Because here’s the thing:
Planning is nervous system regulation.
It’s how you stop outsourcing your stability to the chaos around you.
For years, many of us were holding our breath—waiting for the world to calm down, to go back, to make sense again.
But this is it. This is the world.
It might evolve—but the clarity will not arrive first.
And waiting to be rescued—by a job, a leader, a government, “someone”—keeps your nervous system on high alert. It’s a trap.
I know because I lived it.
From 2020 to 2025, I experienced the most intense season of personal transformation of my life.
I didn’t know exactly where I was headed—but I knew what I couldn’t keep doing. So I made a list. I stood in front of a whiteboard in my home and wrote down everything I wanted to be true about my life:
💸 Financial stability
💗 Love and connection
🧘♀️ Freedom and flexibility
🌎 A life that actually felt like mine
Then I broke it down:
What does financial stability mean for me?
What does love look like in my life?
I refined the vision over and over.
I got specific.
So specific I could see it when I closed my eyes.
And then?
Everything started to change. Because everything that wasn’t aligned… started falling away.
This is the part no one tells you:
The path out of grief isn’t always healing first.
Sometimes it’s choosing a new direction—and then doing the healing as you walk it.
You have to name what’s true.
Not what you wish was true.
Not what should be true.
Your nervous system craves certainty—and the only place that starts is with honesty.
That’s how the Straight Line Method was born.
Because most people try to leap straight into “fixing” without ever stating the truth.
They operate from stress. From “should.” From illusion.
But clarity only comes after truth.
Here’s how each section works:
🛠️ Rapid Fix – A practical path forward using the Straight Line Method. No fluff, just action.
🔍 Deep Dive – A concept, book, or tool to help you understand the challenge beneath the surface.
📂 Applied Strategy – A real-world case that shows how these patterns play out—and how to avoid the same traps.
Together, they’re designed to help you go from stuck to strategic. Let’s dig in.
⚡ Rapid Fix: Straight Line Mini
Use this micro-version of the Straight Line Method to get unstuck
- Accept – Say it: “The world changed—and so did I.”
You can’t move forward if you’re still pretending it’s 2019. - Choose – Decide on a direction. Just one.
What’s one thing you want to be true about your life, six months from now? - Identify – What’s keeping you here?
Fear of the unknown? Loyalty to the past? Exhaustion? - Prepare – What would tomorrow look like if you moved toward that version of you?
Write it down. Create a command center. Make it real. - Execute – Take one clear, honest step toward it—today.
Send the message. Research the thing. Say the truth out loud.
Grief fogs the future. Vision cuts through.
Start building yours.
Today.
🔍 Deep Dive
📚 Book Recommendation: "Wintering" by Katherine May
“We like to imagine that it's possible for life to be one eternal summer... but life meanders like the seasons, and sometimes it requires us to winter.”
This book is a poetic, grounded exploration of what it means to endure tough seasons—emotionally, physically, spiritually. Katherine May doesn’t offer “fixes,” she offers language and rituals for accepting what is and gently choosing what’s next. It’s especially resonant for anyone navigating quiet grief, burnout, or big life transitions.
📂 Case Study: Tina Turner
Lesson: Comebacks require courage, not permission.
At 39, Tina Turner had nothing but her name—and even that was hard-won.
After surviving years of abuse at the hands of her husband and musical partner, she walked away from everything, including her fortune, determined to rebuild on her own terms. The industry had counted her out: too old, too Black, too female, too “past her prime.”
But Tina didn’t just return. She redefined what a comeback looks like.
At 44, she released Private Dancer—and sold over 10 million albums. Her tour broke records. Her name became legend. And she did it not by chasing approval, but by betting on herself.
Sometimes starting over isn’t a detour. It’s the damn main event.
Read more here --> Tina Turner: Life Story You May Not Know
We don’t always get to choose the disruption.
But we do get to choose what we do with it.
Whether you’re processing quiet grief or loud headlines, you don’t have to freeze.
You can pause, plan, and move with intention.
Even in uncertainty, clarity is still possible.
And when the world feels too loud to hear yourself think?
Come back to your vision.
That’s where your next move lives.
You know more than you think. Let’s build from there.
Nic | The Exec Advisor
