what’s the unhinged thing you’d do if it didn’t count?
somewhere underneath the careful version of you is a want that doesn't fit. the thing you'd do if it didn't count probably tells you something about what you're holding back.
every day there's one live question, the same for everyone. answer it anonymously, see what other people said. it's all gone in seven days.
answer today's question →let yourself write the unhinged thing without editing it. quit the job, send the text, book the flight, say the unsayable thing. write it down as if you're actually going to do it. then sit with it for a moment. look at what the impulse is really about. is it freedom, is it anger, is it grief, is it just wanting to feel something different. write about what it would feel like in the ten seconds after you did it. then write about why you haven't, and whether that reason still makes sense to you.
- write the plan out step by step, as if it's happening tomorrow morning.
- ask yourself what feeling you're chasing and whether there's a smaller, less unhinged way to get it.
- write about who would be most surprised and why that matters to you.
this is for you if you've been responsible for a long time and something in you is starting to push back.