Chapter 1 of My Substack Story: The Quest to End Serial Squirrel Chasing

Image created by DALL-E and me!

I love squirrels.

Friends and family see it as a strange — yet interesting — quirk of mine. I can’t begin to tell you how many squirrel-related gifts they’ve given me over the years. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

But, while I love real squirrels, metaphorical ones have held me back time and time again. Maybe you can relate to this, too?

Hats I’ve worn throughout my career include corporate communications professional, advertising copywriter, account executive, attorney, freelance content creator, and professor.

I often wonder how my life might have unfolded if I had just stuck with ONE of those careers.

But, squirrels.

The fact that this is the fifth issue of The Shorter Runway is a bit of a miracle — particularly since my career path looks like something drawn with a Spirograph®.

Starting this newsletter was fairly easy. But now comes the hard part: Sticking with it even when it feels like I’m just creating content that’s getting sucked into a black hole or worrying that people will judge me or criticize what I’m doing.

The struggle is real, people. And the fact that I was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety 20 years ago doesn’t help. One of the ways this condition manifests for me is in a constant need for perfectionism and reassurance. I’m not talking about the kind of perfectionism we typically think of. Nope. I’m talking about perfectionism on steroids — the kind that tells me something very, very, very bad will happen if what I put out into the world isn’t absolutely, positively perfect in every way.

What does this mean for me? It means that — for most of my adult life — the thought of creating something and sending it out into the world has stopped me in my tracks. It has made it almost impossible to stick with anything long enough to get traction. It fuels the idea that making a mistake will put an end to everything I’ve worked for.

It’s been easier to chase squirrels. By doing that, I haven’t had to commit to any one thing. And that means it’s been easier to leave that one thing behind because I’m off to find the next thing (which I inevitably left behind).

But dammit — I’m tired of that. And this is why The Shorter Runway is the start of a new chapter for me.

I love to teach.

I love to write.

I love to empower others to achieve their full potential.

I love to tell and hear stories.

I love technology.

I love community.

And I love the idea of helping other women succeed in a world that so often doesn’t see us, doesn’t value our contributions, and that simply isn’t built for us.

My passion for each of these led to the idea for The Shorter Runway. And it’s this passion that I’m going to use as fuel for summoning up the courage, commitment and focus that will be needed to make this a venture worth pursuing.

The thing I’ve loved most about Substack so far is connecting with SO MANY talented and smart women who I would probably never have met if not for this platform. I’m looking forward to getting to know them and YOU better as the weeks, months and years roll on

My Substack story is still early in Chapter 1. In fact, I think I’m still in the prologue. But, (metaphorical) squirrels be damned, it’s going to be a story worth writing.

If you’ve read this far and are so inclined, I’d appreciate hearing from you in the comment section or email or by participating in the quick poll below.

Thanks for indulging me with this rather self-centered post. And thanks for being a member of this small — but steadily growing — Shorter Runway community. I’m so glad you’re here!

Talk soon,

Michele

P.S. It’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in the next edition of The Shorter Runway. I’ll be sharing ideas about how to turn your experience and expertise into content your audience will LOVE!