April Mood: Mourning Our Ambition
From Our April Newsletter:
I’m in the middle of the hard work right now, chasing a goal that I still don’t know the full scope of. Every day feels like I’m failing at something or making a mistake at a new-to-me endeavor. I feel like a teenager learning how to be a real, functioning human for the first time.
It’s not just frustrating, it’s embarrassing. Why don’t I know how to do everything by now??
But then I remind myself: I’m in a movie and this is the part where the montage plays out. There’s a kicky song playing and we’re watching Reese Witherspoon pick herself up again after being dejected. On the other side of all this doubt and failure is success and Luke Wilson.
A lot of times the language used around the idea of goal-setting and aspirations can be formulaic and pushily positive. You can do it! Just decide and try! I really liked Nicole’s reflections on the process of mourning ambition (more on that later) and assessing one’s aspirations because she gets at something I think everybody experiences: lots of times there’s a frustrating process involved in even knowing what we want! Clarity on end goals or method isn’t a given, and the path to something (but what??) is cloudy. But that doesn’t mean you’re ambivalent or foolish. The painstaking work of “trying on” (as she puts it) different visions and seeing how they align with your values? That’s the work. That’s the clarity being chipped away at.
You can read the whole thing over at our monthly newsletter. It’s our little way to connect every couple of weeks. We talk about real stuff. Share things that are visually inspiring us in a design-y mood board and dish on the things we’ve actually been loving lately (like our favorite recipes, books, music, etc, not influencer recs).
You can sign up below and shoot us an email if you want this month’s letter since it already went out. So happy to drop it to you!
Till May, friends!
Mood board image credits, left to right (top row): Leah Gardener, unknown, @_hannahs.library_, Legally Blonde, (bottom row): unknown, Ruben Riermeier, Leah Gardner, Meredith Jenks for Coveteur
